been unbelievers Had St. Paul taught a contrary Doctrine or any other of the Apostles viz. That the Children of Christian Parents had no more right to Baptismal Initiation than those of Heathen Idolaters it would certainly have offended them more than all they preached against Circumcision and keeping the Ceremonial Law Page the 17. He hath these Words The nearer you are to the Truth the further off you are from the Papists and the further off from the Truth the nearer to them Which is so false that 't is not in the least deserving a confutation since they hold most if not all the fundamental Articles of Faith how e're they may endanger the Foundation by their building Hay and Stubble thereon But it signifies nothing it seems to retort upon them for symbolizing with the Papists tho' in points diametrically opposite to the Protestant Religion it don't affect them as he gives us to understand in the Words just before neither will they be concern'd to take notice of any such charge At this rate they themselves may fall into the grossest Principles of Popery and yet be nearer the Truth and it must pass for sound Protestant Doctrine And no reflection must be made as if they had a Prerogative peculiar to their Sect that whatsoever opinion they espouse they are so infallible in their Tenets though it be never so Erroneous and Popish it immediately commenceth Orthodox To my saying and proving that Antiquity is on our side instead of answering the Authorities he says Page 23. that 't is my great Mistake and wonders how I could assert such a thing since they can go back as far as John and Christ and his Apostles Now I must and do acknowledge that no Argument or Antiquity is equal to the Scriptures when the Interpretations are not doubtful yet when they are so I appeal to any sober Dissenter of whatsoever Sect or Party whether the harmonious Practice of the ancient Churches and the undivided consent of Apostolical Fathers be not the most sure and authentick Interpreters that can be betwixt Men and Men they thought Infant Baptism lawful and valid and no abuse of the Ordinance of Baptism And let any modest or moderate Man judge whether it be likely that those famous Saints and Martyrs so near the Apostles times should fall into such a delusion as as to conspire in the Doctrine and practice of a Mock-Baptism and of making multitudes of supposititious Christians and Churches Or whether it be not more probable that a little Sect repugnant to all the Ancient as well as modern Churches should be in an Error The very Scriptures whose sufficiency we admire as well as they cannot be proved to be the Word of God without Tradition and though they are sufficient where they are understood to determine any Controversie yet the right Understanding and Interpretation of them in many Points the practice of the Church is as requisite as the practice of the Court is to understand the Book of the Law I may further observe to them that they themselves cannot defend according to their own Postulatum the baptizing of such grown Persons as were born and bred in the Church from the Scripture for that the very Institution there of Baptism hath a special regard to Proselytes who from Judaisme or Gentilisme were coming over to the Christian Faith Neither can they produce a Precedent of such an one baptized in the New Testament but all the baptized Persons we read of in it were Jews or Gentiles of an expiring or false Religion newly converted and therefore according to their own demands if to justifie their own practice they must produce such a particular Distinct Precept or Example they cannot defend themselves against the Quakers who for this and other Reasons have quite laid aside Baptism nor against the opinion of the Socinians who use this very way of Argumentation for the Non-necessity of Water-Baptism Though they think good in their present Circumstances to practise it * Vid. Johannis Volkelii Misnici de verà Religione Lib. 6. Cap. 14. de Aqua-Baptismo ab Apostolis Usurpato pag. 663. In the same Page he saith 't is strange reasoning to Argue that 't was not likely that St. Paul was dipt when he was baptized seeing he was Sick and Weak having fasted three Days c. Methinks he should rather have said strong reasoning being it would be so unsuitable to the easiness of Christ's Yoak who will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Ay but saith this Answerer he being commanded to be baptized closed with the Command and did not consult with Flesh and Blood Very good it would ill become him to dispute God's Commandment but was the manner prescribed That it must be by dipping the whole Body under Water or plunging it as they do with their Cloaths on which would be rather a baptizing of Garments than of Bodies nothing of this appears All Circumstances agree that he was not so baptized Such a penance to St. Paul in his Condition had perhaps been more Unsupportable than Circumcision and more dangerous than whatever the Ceremonial Law required to those therefore who are such stubborn Assertors of the Doctrine of dipping that of St. Peter may be well applyed Why tempt ye God to put such a Yoak on the Necks of Christians that are not able to bear it And let them fear who submit thereto that God say not unto them at last who hath required this at your Hands What he saith to the Instance of the Goaler is in short this If they had not gone forth out of his House how could he say when he had brought them into his House As if the Keeper had not or might not have an Apartment in the Prison peculiar to himself and distinct from that of the Malefactors He is again with my strange reasoning Page 24. about the manner of Philip's baptizing of the Eunuch It seems 't was too difficult for him to Answer to any purpose and therefore he bids me to leave off such Carnal Reasonings But what doth he seem to say to it he endeavours to shew that Philip and the Eunuch's meeting could not be accidental as I had observed for this very Reason Because it was eminently Providential which argues that he is so very Simple and Ignorant that he understands not what accidental Means or that he most erroneously thinks that some things may happen or fall out without the Divine Prescience and in which the Providence of God is not concern'd He hath a mere Figment of his own Invention though he don't apply it which would argue that their Meeting was not altogether accidental but that Philip at least had some previous Knowledge thereof for he says Act. 8.26 The Angel of the Lord bids him arise and go to meet him When as there is no such thing in the Text. And therefore he may justly fear lest that Curse he more than once causelesly alludes to Page 22. as of so tremendous and
INFANT-BAPTISM OR Infant-Sprinkling As the Anabaptists Ironically term it Asserted and maintained by the Scriptures and Authorities of the Primitive Fathers Together with a REPLY to a pretended ANSWER To which is added A SERMON PREACHED On Occasion of the Author 's baptizing an Adult Person With some Enlargements By J. R. Rector of Lezant in Cornwal LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by J. Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard Philip Bishop at Exon and Benjamin Smithurst at Lanceston in Cornwal 1700. To the Worshipful Sir Joseph Tredenham Kt. 'T IS not unknown how you have vouchsafed to espouse my Cause in many difficulties I have strugled with Which is very much my Glory that so eminently worthy and accomplisht a Person and so great a Votary of the Church of England as Your Self hath not only judged favourably but on many occasions actually interested your self on my behalf It therefore behoves me to lay hold on any opportunity to demonstrate a grateful Mind tho' it be accompanied with a new Address for further Favour as this at present is to countenance a small Polemical Discourse for I cannot but call to mind having so well experienced its truth in you that known Aphorism which a Reverend Prelate lays down in the close of his Parable of the Pilgrim Those will be our best Friends not to whom we have done good but who have done good to us which speaks the abounding goodness of a Benefactor Vpon this ground I take the confidence of making this Dedication 'T would be tedious to recount to you the various Motives that have induced me thus to engage in this Controversie when so many Tracts have been already set forth of this Nature it may suffice to clear me from all aspersions that I can justly say from the Observation of others as well as my own that 't is like the Quakers a growing Sect with whom I contend and that they have lately in my Parish of Up-Ottery built them a Synagogue of such a Structure as if they meant it should out-vy the Parochial Church there These things I humbly conceive render it necessary and make it my more peculiar Province to endeavour with others to stop the growth of the Faction that so my own Flock may not be worried and miss-led but that I may be assisting to them in my necessary absence as well as when I am present amongst them and by any means reduce some and prevent others from going astray from the holy Communion of our Church whose Peace and Prosperity all its true Members especially the Clergy ought to Consult and Promote Sir my Prayers and Endeavours are intent upon these Things and as far as I continue stedfast in such labours I am secure of your good Opinion Your most Obliged and most devoted humble Servant James Rossington INFANT BAPTISM OR Infant Sprinkling c. INfant Baptism or Cornwal's Vindication of the Royal Commission of King Jesus Dedicated to the House of Commons about the Year 1645 and A. R. in his Vanity of Childish Baptism as the Anabaptists sometimes call it Infant Sprinkling is no Popish Tradition much less is it as they pretend brought into the Church by Innocent the Third yea so far is it from being any corrupt Innovation crept into the Church that it agrees with the mind of God in the holy Scriptures and consequently we need not question its agreeableness to the practice of the Church of Christ even in the first Ages of Christianity tho' it should be supposed we have no express Records of matter of Fact which yet we have and the same authentick and undeniable Neither is our way of administring Baptism by pouring on of Water novel or to be dislik'd To demonstrate the agreeableness of this Doctrine to the revealed Will of God I shall take my rise from the Covenant God made with Abraham * Gen. 12.3.17.8 being by the Apostle's computation †Gal. 3.17 430 years before the giving of the Law And to this he elsewhere refers ‖ Gal. 3.8 where he signifies that the Gospel was before preached to him that is to say in the words of the Promise as containing in them a Breviary thereof being an Evangelical and not a legal Promise viz. That all Nations of the World and not only the Jews should be justified by Faith and consequently the Gentiles now and that without legal Mosaical performances for after this manner and in these express words did the Promise run In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and again I will establish my Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee * Gen. 17.8 9. And when God had thus enacted and established his Covenant with that holy Patriarch and his Seed he immediately thereupon as you 'l find †ver 10. commanded them to keep that his Covenant Vid. Dr. Burthog's Argument for Infant Baptism Printed Anno 84. and Whiston's Infant Baptism plainly proved Printed Anno 78. not only in the substance but in the sign and token of it as 't is immediately in one continued Speech exegetically added this is my Covenant or token of my Covenant so that the sense and meaning of the Phrase in either Verse is clearly the meaning of both and Circumcision is specified to be the Covenant at that time to be kept tho' not the only Covenant to be kept The Obligation imposed upon Abraham and his Seed was as you may note in the first Place to keep the sign or token of the Covenant or the Covenant in the sign of it and then to observe Circumcision as that sign or token The former is of perpetual Obligation the latter is more positive and secondary Tho' then there be an alteration in the second Injunction it will not therefore follow there must be in the first or that the Covenant ought not to be observed in the sign of it if for certain reasons Circumcision be no longer but something else be that sign So in the fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it Holy that is the first thing which is principally Commanded but the other the seventh Day that is the last Day of the Week is the Sabbath that is but secondary so that the Obligation to the first and that which is primary in the Command doth not cease because there is an alteration in the second and that not the seventh but the first is now the Sabbath of the Lord. For a further explanation of this Truth you may observe that the Command in the 9th verse requires the keeping of the Covenant in general but don't determine what the token of the Covenant should be but obligeth to whatsoever token God should institute 't is not said Thou shalt be circumcised or be baptised but thou shalt keep my Covenant that is as afore the token of the Covenant consequently when Circumcision was appointed it obliged to that but Circumcision being laid aside and another sign
and greater Priviledges are granted to all English Subjects without mentioning the former or their Children those former Priviledges are held by all Lawyers to belong still to all English Subjects and their Children because all such Acts and the beneficial Clauses thereof are still in Force 'till they are repealed by the same Authority and Power that made them neither will it suffice to say that the Priviledge here granted is in a Testamentary way and the making a New Testament is a vertual repealing any former Will or Testament so that supposing this was a Legacy bequeathed to the Jewish Church by Christ's Testament yet forasmuch as 't is not granted by Christ's last Will and Testament which we call the Gospel or the New Testament the Priviledge ceaseth of it self But this Comparison is faulty and will not hold For the Old Testament or as it is by way of distinction with reference to that Ministration sometimes called the Law and the Gospel tho' they differ in Circumstantials yet are not two Wills of Christ but for substance one and the same Will and Testament even the same Covenant of Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ or if you will the Gospel in respect of the Law is like a Schedule or Codicil to a Will the adding some further Legacies not already given and no Legacies that were bequeathed in the foregoing Will can be cut off except they be particularly recalled in the Codicil in like manner Infants Church-membership must remain in force under the Gospel except it be the Will of Christ it should cease and he had declared as much in the Codicil of the New Testament but no such thing appearing there proves it still in force 'T is not denied but that the Collective Body of the Jews were broken off from the Church thro' unbelief * Rom. 11.20 that is by reason of their positive infidelity whereby they did directly and openly disown and reject the true Messiah yet all of them were not there were many thousands or as the word is Myriads of the Jews that believed as the Scripture witnesseth †Act. 21.20 Neither were the rest broken off but the believing Gentiles were inoculated in amongst them ‖ Grotius on Rom. 1.17 till they professedly rejected Christ and were become open Enemies to his Gospel now it would be unreasonable to infer that all the Infants were broken off for the infidelity of some of the Parents The elect Jews which obtained Mercy kept their Station and so must needs be conceived to retain their Priviledges for themselves and theirs otherwise they would become losers to what they were before the exhibition of Christ in respect of their Infant Seed for they who were before within and wore the Badge of the Covenant should afterwards be without and deprived of that Dignity and 't is the general received opinion and even of some Anabaptists * This is granted by Harrison in his Paedo Baptism oppugn'd as he is cited by Geree in his Vindiciae Vindiciarum pag. 20. that what Priviledges the Nation of the Jews had before their Rejection the same shall they recover with an advantage at their Restoration †Hos 2.23 Rom. 11.25 26. and to say the Geniles shall not have the same Covenant-Priviledges with them is to make a difference and so set up a Partition-wall when as the Apostle asserts ‖ Gal. 3.28 both Jew and Grecian Male and Female are all one in Christ * Act. 8.12 which shews the Apostle's Practice in the Case And the reason on which it was grounded you have Gal. 3.28 fore-quoted Summarily and briefly excluding Children out of the Covenant and debarring them of the Sign put a sacrilegious restraint thereon and excludes them from the ordinary way of Salvation for if they have no visible interest in the Covenant in regard of God's visible dispensation then they have no visible interest in Christ they are no way related to him who is the Mediator of the Covenant we conclude therefore that the aforesaid Law of keeping the Covenant and of entering into the Covenant is as much in force as ever and we are still bound to observe the Covenant and the token of it that is after the manner of its Administration for the time being if the Sign be changed the Case is not altered our Obligation continues the same Now Baptism is the initiating Ordinance as afore when Circumcision was the Token Not but that there is a difference in the Administration viz. That whereas the Females are as susceptive of the Rite of Baptism as the Males therefore 't is equally and as distinctly to be administred unto them * See our warrant for this Gal. 4.9 10. Neither hath God taken any order in that Case of Infants to tie us to administer it precisely on the 8th Day no more then he hath done in the Case of the adult or actual Believers whether immediately upon their believing or the next Day or the Day after but the Gospel indulging a discretionary Latitude in both Cases it may be done sooner or later provided we do not out of a profane or careless humor procrastinate it as St. Cyprian argues in his Epistle to Fidus †Epist 58 the query was about baptizing Infants before the 8th Day Fidus did not deny Infant Baptism but only denyed the baptizing of them till then to which the Father returns this Answer that both himself and the Council with him which consisted of 66 Bishops unanimously determined that a Child might be baptized as soon as he was Born whereupon St. Austin speaks to this effect that St. Cypr. did not make any new Decree but observing the faith and practice of the Church judged with his own fellow Bishops that as soon as one was Born he might be lawfully baptized Ut parvuli si infirmari contingat eodem die quo nati sunt bpatizentur Concil Gerund Can. 4. yea in danger of Death in ipsa hora says Greg. l. 12. Epist 10. apud Magdeb. Cent. 6. c. 6. Col. 367. and Ina King of the West Saxons made a Law that Infants should be baptized within thirty Days after their Birth under the penalty of thirty shillings a great sum in those Days Leg. Inae c. 2. apud Spelm. Concil Ang. Tom. 1. p. 183. Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris Matrum baptizandos negat Anath sit Concil Milevit Can. 2. apud Magdeb. Cent. 5. c. 9. col 835. Caranz fol. 123 being the 11 Conc. in the African Code confirmed by the 4th and 6th general Council there being no necessity why we should delay their Baptism but rather that we should hasten it all we can so long as I may add we become not alike Superstitious with the Church of Rome who in danger of Death do it e're the child is fully Born into the World ‖ Si timeatur de morte Infantis antequam nascatur caput ejusd appareat extra uterum infundat
walk in the way that leads to Hell Be not deceived he hath sworn the contrary and hath heaped up Tribulation and Wrath for every Soul that doth Evil. For that Person more especially who though baptized hath profaned and made the Blood of the Covenant as an unholy Thing Fourthly Let the consideration of this great Priviledge excite us to a Holy Life to live as Men who are dead to Sin and alive unto God To make account that it ought to be as strange to see a baptized Person walk in a sinful Course as to see a Spectrum a walking Ghost at Noon-day We are buried with Christ in Baptism And how can we who are dead to Sin live any longer therein saith the Apostle So that we are or should be at least as it were dead and buried to Sin and that this may be the rather effected and brought to pass we must be mortified as to the World To this use the Apostle seems to apply the Argument of the Text in the following Chapter to call off Mens affections from earthly Things towards the Things that are above There is acted a kind of Similitude upon the baptized to the Burial and Resurrection of Christ And we profess in a spiritual Sense to be dead to the World and to be risen again to a more Noble and Divine Life so as to be above the World And 't is the Engagement of Baptism to be as it were dead and buried with respect to the Things here below Thus some interpret that of the 1 Cor. 15.29 where the Apostle arguing against the Atheists and Sadducees who denied the Resurrection and the hopes of Glory in another Life says What shall they do that are baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for dead Men or as dead Men into a mortification of this World so as to run all Losses Dangers and Hazards for the Profession of Christ such would then be of all Men most miserable if things were so as the Sadducees and Atheists suggest But certainly there is a glorious state of eternal Life hereafter and therefore let us not be befooled with the Snares of earthly Vanities to neglect things Eternal Our Baptism engages us to live above the World to be dead to it to have mortified Affections to the things thereof The World indeed affords lawful comforts for the living and convenient resting Places for the dead but their Souls are above So should Christians be in the World use it as it doth administer to their necessities and conveniences but the Soul the affections should be above We are not dead Naturally and so there is need and there must be a using of the World but we must be dead spiritually to every thing in it that is matter of allurement and temptation to draw us aside from God and must be strangers to such immoderate cares and desires as drown multitudes of Men in Perdition Lastly Let this serve to comfort those whom God Honours so far as to bring them thus near unto himself as to adopt them into his Family and to take them for his own Let this encourage them to believe in him and to rely upon him for all the good things that he hath promised in the Covenant of Grace They of the Church of Rome as in some things they give and ascribe too much to Baptism making it to take away original Sin by the mere applying of the Ordinance so in other things they rob God's People of the comfortable use of it because they say when once we commit actual Sins after the susception of Baptism we make Ship-wrack of our Baptism and then Penance must be secunda tabula post naufragium the only Pinnace or Plank which we can safely catch hold of in this extremity But this blessed Sacrament is of a more durable and comfortable use even to be an Ark whereto 't is assimulated 1 Pet. 3.21 to carry us to Heaven 'T is not a business past and finished in the very Act of its Administration There are in it Promises of such Grace as we may still have need of and by its engaging us to Mortification and Holiness the most comprehensive Duties of Christianity we may experience it to be an Instrument of Grace throughout the whole transaction of our Lives That is when 't is from time to time improved and actuated by a sober Consideration and a serious Recognizing of the Baptismal Covenant and reflecting on the Terms and Conditions upon which we stand with God with respect to Justification and Glory And when the same is prest home by the conviction of the Spirit These things being premised we may readily Conclude what an effectual Instrument and Means it may prove of converting the Souls of Men and regenerating them long after the time of its reception So that Holy Baptism continues still to be altogether as effectual to apply the Blood of Christ for washing away of Sin upon true Repentance as when we first received it Know then that when ever we find our selves at a loss sensible of our undone Condition conscious of our Guilt and Bondage through Sin and so do fly by Faith unto Christ and our Conscience bears us Witness that we would fain Walk for the time to come according to the rule of the Covenant in Uprightness and Sincerity as often I say as we do this we may have recourse to our Baptism and plead it for our Comfort as we may plead the Rain-bow in great Inundations against the World's destruction by Water Thus upon the renewing of our Repentance and Faith in Christ Holy Baptism will be as an Ark to the Soul in all Cases of Relapse Desertion and Temptation For the like figure whereunto doth baptism also now save us saith the Apostle Which that it may so prove to every one of us and particularly to the Person that hath even now received it God of his infinite mercy Grant for Jesus Christ his sake To whom c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 5. line 19. read putting p. 12. l. 12. r. token p. 17. l. 18. r. Gentiles p. 18. l. 16. r. the Case p. 19. in marg r. Rodolpho p. 28. marg l. 30. r. Canon p. 31. marg l. 15. r. eâdem p. 33. l. 30. r. Independent p. 34. l. 32. blot out has p. 76. l. 20. blot out as p. 83. l. 13. r. not to be A Catalogue of Books Printed for and sold by John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard POOL's Annotations on the Holy Bible in 2 Vol. The 4th Edition Much corrected Folio Philips's New World of Words or an Universal English Dictionary containing the Proper Significations and Derivations of all Words from other Languages c. The Fifth Edition with large Additions and Improvements from the best English and Foreign Authors Folio Archbishop Vsher's Life and Letters Published by Dr. Parr his Grace's Chaplain Folio Archbishop Vsher's Sermons Folio The History of England By Dr. Frankland Folio Love's whole Art of Surveying and Measuring of Land made easie With plain and practical Rules how to survey protract cast up reduce or divide any Piece of Land whatsoever 4 to Strode's New and Easie Method to the Art of Dyalling 4 to His Arithmetical Treatise of the Permutations Combinations Elections and Compositions of Quantities 4 to Miracles perform'd by Money A Poem 4 to Godwin's Roman and Jewish Antiquities 4 to Bishop Hopkins on the Lord's Prayer and Commandments 4 to Happy Union betwixt England and Holland 4 to Lord Shannon's Letter to an Atheistical Acquaintance 4 to Reasons why a Protestant should not turn Papist 4 to Rich's Epistle to the seven Churches 4 to Religio Militis 4 to Archbishop Cranmer's Judgment on the Holy Scriptures Publisht by Dr. Gee 4 to Baxter's Church History and Episcopacy 4 to Mr. Boyle's free Enquiry into the Vulgarly receiv'd Notion of Nature In English and Latine 8 vo His Disquisition of the Final Causes of Natural Things 8 vo Of Languid and Local Motion 8 vo Abbadie of the Truth of the Christian Religion 8 vo Quintilian's Declamations 8 vo Dr. Newton's Compleat Arithmetician 8 vo Counsellor Manner's Legacy to his Son 8 vo Ray's Nomenclator Classicus sive Dictionariolum Trilingue A Classical Nomenclator with the Gender and Declension of each Word and the Quantities of the Syllables c. For the use of Schools 8 vo Robertson's Large and General Phrase-Book 8 vo Dr. Owen's Meditations of the Glory of Christ Yworth's whole Art of Practical Distillation 8 vo Bishop Hopkins Sermons and Discourses in Four Volumes 8 vo Dr. Salmon's Practical Physick shewing the Method of curing the most usual Diseases happening to Humane Bodies the whole compleated in Three Books 8 vo Lord Shannon's Discourses for the Modish Ladies and their Gallants 8 vo Mrs Eliz. Walker's Life and Character 8 vo