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sin_n	actual_a	adam_n	original_a	9,456	5	8.6542	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B23662	The controversie about infants church-membership and baptism, epitomized in two treatises the first, shewing the certainty of the salvation of all dying infants, against the doctrine of the Pædo-baptists, who deny salvation to all infants that die unbaptized, either directly, or by the natural consequence of their arguments : the second, being a plain confutation of Mr. J.B. his second book of more than 60 queries, about infants church-membership and baptism, by a proportionable number of antiqueries : being an essay towards a more Christian accomodation between the Pædo-baptists, and the baptized believers, published for that happy end / by Thomas Grantham.	Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692.; Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692. Querist examined.	1680 (1680)	Wing G1529	50,899	65

the Decree made by the African Council † The words of the Council are these All that affirm young Children receive Eternal Life albeit they be not by Baptism renewed they are accursed c. where Augustine was present and President Wherefore remove but this Error and the other will presently vanish SECT X. The Sum of this Controversy I will finish this Discourse by setting down certain Propositions which contain the whole Controversy and which I hope will carry so much Light and Evidence in them as may tend much to the satisfaction of the Reader The thing to be cleared is this viz. That no dying Infants are Damned or all dying Infants are Saved Which will thus be made good 1. Because they cannot damn themselves And it is most certain God will not Damn any to Hell Torments who do not first Damn themselves in sinful Courses This is evident by his unwillingness to destroy those that had so destroyed themselves Hos 13. 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help If then our God be thus unwilling to destroy those that have destroyed themselves as that he will help and save them how should it enter into the Heart of a Christian to imagine that the same God will Damn poor Infants who never destroyed themselves neither can they do it 2. No Man can damn Infants This is evident because if any Man have power to damn Infants every Man hath the same for it cannot be proved the peculiar power whether good or bad of any Man And if any will say that every Man hath power to damn his Children he speaks presumptuously there is nothing in the Word of God to countenance such a Doctrine for the contrary is plain Jer. 31. 30. Every one shall die for his own iniquity This is meant or is most true of Eternal Death because we all die the first Death for the Sin of another to wit Adam and though this saying be true of the Adult yet it is the more to our purpose because if God be so gracious to actual Sinners as not to damn them for the Sin of another there is all the ground imaginable to believe that he will be as gracious to Infants 3. The Devil cannot damn Infants This is evident because Infants are out of the reach of Santan's Temptations seeing they know not to chuse the Good or to refuse it they know neither Good nor Evil they know not their right Hand from their left Jer. 7. 16. Jonah 4. 11. Whom Satan cannot Tempt them he cannot Damn 4. God will not damn Infants God will not suffer Men to punish any Person for that which they cannot help Deut. 22. 25 26. If a Man find a betrothed Damsel in the Field and force her and lie with her then the Man only that lay with her shall die but unto the Damsel shalt thou do nothing there is in the Damsel no Sin worthy of Death For as when a Man riseth up against his Neighbour and slayeth him even so is this matter The Mercy which God sheweth in this case may suffice to convince us that in the Judgment of the Almighty there is no Sin in Infants worthy of Damnation seeing what Sin soever is upon them i● was impossible for them to avoid it Wherefore he will not d●●● poor dying Infants 5. Christ will not damn poor Infants When Christ denounceth the Damnation of Hell he dir 〈…〉 speech to Hypocrites and incorrigible Sinners Mat. 23. 3 〈…〉 Generation of Vipers how can ye escape the Damnation of Hell But he hath better things in store for Infants for he saith of such are the Kingdom of God which being spoken of Infants or little Children indefinitly shews his Gracious Judgment of them all And he that came not to Condemn the World but to Save the World how shall this be true if he came to Condemn any Infants Seeing there are no Persons in the World who do less deserve Damnation than Infants No not his own Disciples who are therefore sent to little Children to know how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 10. 15 Verily 〈…〉 you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a litt 〈…〉 shall not enter therein What Believer can think himself 〈…〉 Heaven than an Infant Hath he not some Actual Sin 〈…〉 no Infant Hath Christ freed the Believer from Original Sin 〈…〉 e he hath done for all Infants Rom. 5. As in Adam all d 〈…〉 in Christ shall all be made alive John 1. 29 Behold the 〈…〉 God which taketh away the Sin of the World There i 〈…〉 Sin can so properly be called the Sin of the World as Origin 〈…〉 because perhaps a third part of the World dies having no other Sin at all This is the case of Infants this Sin being taken a 〈…〉 hrist how shall Christ their merciful Judg pronounce them 〈…〉 Hell 6. Christ died 〈…〉 Infants therefore they shall not be damned Christ died 〈…〉 Infants Because he gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. He tasted Death for every Man Heb. 2. 9. He bought them that deny him 2 Pet. 2. Therefore certainly he was as gracious to Infants as to those who deny him Seeing then it cannot be denied but he bought them he either bought them to save them or to cast them to Hell Not the latter no by no means The primary end of Christ's dying is Life and Salvation Infants never forfeit this Grace but are just Persons that need no Repentance if there be any such in the World 7. All dying Infants are written in the Book of Life from the Foundation of the World therefore no dying Infants are Damned The Omniscient God knew as well the Date of all Mens Lives as that they should be born or live at all and therefore did he know who would die in Infancy as well as who would live to years of Knowledg Admitting then their opinion to be true That hold a certain number ordain'd to Life from the Foundation of the World yet we doubt not but to make good this Proposition and that by the Text Rev. 20. 12. as expounded by themselves For by the Books out of which the Damned are judged is understood the Actions of Men even the most secret which shall then be laid open Now these Books cannot concern Infants they having done neither good nor evil Here is therefore another Book opened which say they represents the everlasting Election to Life and Glory in Christ In this Book must all dying Infants either be found written or else be Judged without Book The Book of Conscience will not accuse them therefore the Lamb's Book of Life must needs acquit them 8. All dying Infants are in the Covenant of Grace therefore no dying Infant shall be Damned When we say Infants are in the Covenant of Grace we mean it as God hath vouchsafed to interess them in his Mercy by Christ That as Condemnation came upon them by Adam's Sin so

* The Law entered that Sin might abound but where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound That as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You can no more exclude any from the Justification of Life as having abounded towards them by Christ than you can exclude them from the Condemnation which abounded towards all Men by the First Adam For tell me How many came under Condemnation by the Sin of Adam Is there any or any Infant that can plead Impunity Why even so saith the Apostle the Free-gift came upon all Men to Justification of Life And may we not now safely conclude that had Mankind never been guilty of any other Sin but that I say upon a supposition that Adam and his Posterity had from the time of the Promise Gen. 3. 15. lived holily and done no Iniquity would you not conclude with me that none should have perished in Hellish Torments And if you grant this then we must either find some Man SO concern'd in the Covenant of Grace AS that if he sinned against it his Posterity is condemned with him Eternally as all Adam's Posterity were exposed to Condemnation for his Sin Or else we must hold that no Infant shall die eternally for Adam's nor for any other Persons iniquity If you name any Man thus concern'd in the Covenant of Grace you can name none so apt for the purpose as Adam seeing we were all in him when that Covenant was made with him and there is no doubt but that he sinned after the Covenant was made Gen. 3. 15. Yet where do we find any Sin which he afterward committed imputed to any part of his Posterity And seeing we cannot prove an Universal Resurrection from 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. unless Mankind be equally concern'd in the Death of Christ We must necessarily believe whole Mankind to be interessed in him and as they are interessed in Christ they are saved of the Lord and in him they are as clearly interessed in God's Mercy as they were Objects of his Wrath by the first Man So being justified from the guilt of Adam's Transgression who shall lay any thing to the charge of poor Infants that may justly cast them into Hell Fire sure 't is but meet Men should be able plainly to Convict them before they thus Condemn them Yea you that hold the Eternal Damnation of Infants ought you not to bring substantial Proof for so dreadful a Doctrine And when you have done your worst that way you have only destroyed your own certainty of Comfort concerning your dying Infants for I am persuaded you are not so unwise to think whatever you make others believe that your Infants are therefore saved because of your pretended Church-Membership and Baptism seeing 't is too evident that many attain to that Estate and yet are unlikely to be saved SECT V. J. B. pag. 13. To assert the Salvation of all that die in Infancy seems to imply that God's destroying the Old World and Sodom c. were eminent Acts of God's Mercy rather than of Justice c. help me over this Difficulty Answ Although it is not unjust for God to take Infants out of the World yet his Justice in destroying the Old World and Sodom lay not against the Infants as I proved in the Section next before but in Justice he punished those wicked Parents in putting a period to their Posterity Did not God in the days of Noah destroy all Beasts and Fowls almost yet who so weak to think he was offended with them was the Lord angry with the Beasts of the Field God was just in taking away David's Child 2 Sam 12. 14 yet who so rash to say That God did this in point of Justice against the Child Or that God was angry with the Child much less that the Child was damned David was far from any such opinion for though that Child was conceived and born in Sin and Iniquity as much as well could be and doubtless had the imputation of Original Sin as much as any yet David nothing feared that Child's damnation but rather intimates his confidence of its Salvation when he said I shall go to it For had it gone to Hell Torments he would not have comforted himself with thoughts of going to it I cannot make your speech to agree with the Justice of God where you say That Infants perish not purely for another's Sin but for their own contracted For though I can hear Men talk big words against Infants as if they were little better than Devils yet I never saw any proof that any Infant had any Sin of its own for which you would here make them perish or at least some of them The Scripture saith Sin is the transgression of a Law and tells us also that where no Law is there is NO TRANSGRESSION You must therefore either shew some Law to be given to Infants or else you cannot make them guilty of any Sin of their own And though I have not seen Mr. Baxter's Book to which you refer me yet I do not deny Original Sin for I know it is come upon all Adam's Posterity and Death passeth upon them for that all have sinned in him Howbeit I do believe that all Infants are as clearly justified from the condemning power of Sin in respect of Damnation as any Saint whatsoever which I think I have also proved from John 1. 29. and other places And seeing you now grant that none shall perish purely for another's Sin it remains for you to shew what Sin excepting Adam's is come upon any Infant to render him subject to Damnation You talk of their Contracting Sin of their own but I am to learn how this can be truly said of them that neither Act nor consent to Sin at all and surely such Scriptureless Notions are fitter to be exploded than embraced And though you seem to have some Charity for those and their Seed that only come up to the Covenant of Grace made with Adam and Noah though they never heard the Gospel whilst you say you do not rank them with Infidels Yet this is but a slender kindness you do not say they shall be saved And you are positive in this That Infants are not saved by the Covenant of Grace if they neither be Believers nor the Seed of such Page 17. How this Doctrine will stand with the justice of a Gracious God I cannot conceive when I consider that God hath neither given to Infants a capacity to believe nor any liberty to chuse whether they will be the Seed of Believers or Unbelievers Will you yet say the most High will be more harsh in the Acts of Justice than the Rules will bear which he hath given to Men Deut. 22. 25 26 It is not the part of a wise Legislator saith a learned Man of the Church of England to recede from his own Laws much less to destroy them by acting contrary

Church-Membership And yet I do not at all doubt that Infant-Baptism will remain without any ground at all SECT II. And this I shall demonstrate by shewing That all Infants are in a visible state of Salvation and so of the Vniversal Church of God and cannot be put out of that blessed state till by their voluntary departure from God by choosing sinful ways they destroy themselves And here we will make our entrance by a passage out of Mr. Baxter himself who saith All Mankind is brought by Christ under a Covenant of Grace which is not vain nor repealed by God But as their abuse of the Grace of the Covenant may cast them out For as a Covenant of intire Nature was made with all Mankind in innocent Adam Mr. Baxter's more Reasons pag. 8. 6. so a Covenant of Grace was made with all Mankind in lapsed Adam Gen. 3. 15. in the promised Seed and renewed again with all Mankind in Noah Now this Doctrine being no more than plain truth we shall apply it to the case in hand by shewing First That this Covenant of Grace was a visible Church-Covenant 2. That it was made with all Mankind and takes place in their Infancy 3. That it was never repealed by God 4. That no Infant did ever abuse the Grace of this Covenant And therefore no Infant was ever cast out of this Covenant And then fifthly They all stand visible Members of the Catholick Church by virtue of this Covenant however their Parents do abuse or neglect it and hence it will follow no dying Infant is Damned but are all in a visible state of Salvation 1. That this Covenant of Grace first expressed Gen. 3. 15. was either a Church-Covenant or else there was no Church-Covenant in the World that we read of from Adam to Noah this being indeed all the Covenant that is named during these Times besides that Covenant of Intire Nature made before the Fall And that Covenant of Nature being broken by Adam and in him by all his Posterity it being not a Covenant of Grace could not justifie the Offenders in the ●ight of God There must therefore be some supervening Act of Grace or Mercy from God else Adam even whole Mankind who were then in his Loins must have stood under Condemnation for ever seeing no Man could by any means redeem his Brother nor give to God a Ransom for him It is the received Doctrine of Christians that the Visible Church began in Adam and that his Family was the Church wherefore the whole World being then the Church and that Church-Covenant being made with the whole World that was to proceed from Adam and this Covenant yet remaining it follows against all contradiction that whole Mankind considered as they come into the World in all the several Ages of it are in a visible state of Salvation and so of the Catholick Church of God But whereas many did Apostatize from the Grace of God's Covenant by corrupting his way Gen. 6. 12. It was necessary that they should be ejected and therefore was the Covenant accommodated and appropriated to those who had not sinned themselves out of it but still the Innocent must not be ejected with the Nocent for it is he only that sinneth whose Name shall be blotted out of the Book which God hath written Gen. 32. 32 33. And therefore neither the Method which God took with Noah in settling the Covenant of his Grace nor yet that Order which he observed with Abraham was exclusive of any Infant in the World as to the Grace of God in order to Eternal Life no more than the establishment of it by Christ in the Gospel in a far more excellent order for distinguishing the Precious from the Vile is in any wise exclusive of any dying Infant for of such is the Kingdom of God Nor can any Man shew either by Scripture or Reason that God will shut out all the dying Infants of wicked Men from Life and Salvation by Christ no nor so much as any one of them for we are sure that the Judgment of God is according to truth that the Judge of all the Earth will do right That the Condemned shall be judged according to the deeds done in the Body but alas as for poor Infants what have they done 2. That this Covenant was made with all Mankind is thus cleared because it was made with Adam without the least intimation of the exclusion of any part of his Posterity as they proceed from him to the end of the World neither hath God himself explained the Covenant of Grace to be Exclusive of any but for the cause of their own iniquity and this was evident first in the case of Cain who not being faithful in his offering was not accepted Yet God was pleased to shew him the cause Gen. 4. 7. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted It should seem God never rejected him till this time neither did he now delight to reject him but graciously expostulates with Cain to convince him of his evil and assures him of acceptation if he did well If then Cain had an interest in the Grace of God who can we suppose to be shut out till they with Cain shut themselves out of it Evident it is that the Covenant of Grace extended to those Rebels in the Old World because we read the long suffering of God waited on them and he gave them time of Repentance and sent a Preacher of Righteousness even the Righteousness of Faith among them Heb. 11. 7. 2 Pet. 2. 5. therefore it is said Christ went by his Spirit and preached to them 1 Pet. 3. though none of them believed his Word Now such Acts on God's part are great Evidences of his Graciousness towards Men and shews that he remembers his Covenant made in Christ with them even for them that rebel against him and so perish And then how shall we think that he should not be gracious to poor Infants who never rebelled against him 3. The Covenant of Grace was never repealed by God for if it be there is now no Covenant at all nor can it be repealed to one Man but it must be repealed to all Men. 'T is true Men may forfeit the Mercy held forth in that Covenant but the Covenant cannot be repealed for then there can be no certainty of any Mercy for Sinners Christ himself may as soon be made Null as this Covenant For what if some Apostatize or do not believe shall this make the Grace of God without effect God forbid When we continually see that Covenant of God's Grace displayed making overtures of kindness to Sinners even to the chief of Sinners what shall we say if any Infant be without a part in that Covenant Is he not then the chief of Sinners It is not then the Sin of Parents that can repeal the Covenant of Grace with respect to Infants 4. No Infants did ever abuse the Grace of the Covenant made with them in Adam

Gen. 3. 15. therefore no Infant was cast out of it Although it is most true that Original Sin is come upon Infants and Death by Sin yet this is as true that Original Sin was not committed against the Covenant of Grace and therefore Infants are not guilty of any Sin committed against the Covenant of Grace and consequently are not deprived of the benefit of it Otherwise if the Sin of Subsequent Parents should make void the Grace of the second Covenant to their Infants as the Sin of Adam made his Posterity guilty of the breach of the first Covenant we may then justly cry out Who then can be saved And therefore was our Saviour the Mediator of the New Testament for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the first Testament Heb. 9. 15. Wherefore seeing Infants stand acquitted from the Trespasses against the First Testament and having not sinned against the Grace of the Second Testament they cannot come into the Condemnation of Hellish Torments The Papists themselves as * Witness the Massacre in Ireland Cruel as they sometimes are to the Bodies of Infants yet are more merciful to their Souls than the Presbyterians For they say That Infants shall only suffer the punishment of Loss but not of Torment Whilst the other tells the World Infants of a Span long are yelling in the flames of Hell 5. That all dying Infants or Infants in general are to be accounted Members of the vast Body or Catholick Church of which Christ is the Saviour finally is evident because they are all in a visible state of Salvation And I think no Man will deny the Catholick Church to contain the whole number of the saved I have nothing more to do therefore but to prove all Infants are in a visible state of Salvation which I shall further clear by answering what is objected against their Salvation by Mr. J. B. my present Adversary who saith Page 9. SECT III. I gave you thanks before for some things before granted concerning Infants and I here promise more thanks if you will prove the same of all Infants Answer When I speak of the Right which Infants have to Life by Christ I intend it only of that Right derived to them by the first Edition of the Covenant of Grace Gen. 3. 15. wherein they are equally concern'd and so have the same Right And I hope you will not say that any Infant did forfeit this gracious Right by abusing the Grace of the Covenant And then Mr. B. tells you the Covenant is not vain nor repealed by God nor they cast out of it My Proves are such as these Infants are either all Saved dying such or some of them are Damned But none of them are Damned therefore they are all Saved See more of this anon 2. Our Saviour saith It is not the Will of his Heavenly Father that one of those little ones should perish which is certainly as true of Infants as of any Persons in the World 3. Christ dying for all Infants and they do not sin themselves out of the benefit of his Death Shortly thus God will not Damn any no not one of these little ones Men and Devils cannot Damn them they cannot Damn themselves Ergo Christ's dying for them will save them all See the conclusion of this Treatise SECT IIII. J. B. Pag. 11. The overthrow of both these Generations in the Deluge is a strange Medium to prove the Salvation of all Infants c. Answer I do not say that God's destroying the Infants of those that were called his Sons Gen. 6. as well as the Infants of others was an Evidence of God's saving any of them But this I do say That it was an Evidence that they were all in one State or Predicament And how would you or any Body else prove so much as one Infant in all the Old World was saved eternally better than I shall prove the Salvation of them all And shall we suffer it to enter into our Hearts that they were all Damned When therefore we reade 2 Pet. 2. 5. That God brought the Flood upon the World of the ungodly And Jude ver 7. 't is said of those who suffered the Vengeance of Eternal Fire That they were given over to Fornication and went after strange Flesh may we not perceive some Light which may guide us to believe that God did not plead in such Wrath against the Infant-seed as he did against the Wicked themselves And though it is true God suffered the Infants to die with the wicked Parents yet that is no Argument of God's condemning them to Hell Torments For did not the same God suffer his Servant Sampson to die by the fall of the Theatre among the wicked Philistines And we see the Righteous often taken away by the same common Calamities which have befallen Nations and Cities Let us remember how tender the Lord was of the Infants in Nineveh and it may convince us he was tender to Infants in the Old World And he that made those little ones an Argument to justifie his sparing Nineveh against the murmuring of Jonah would certainly make that an Argument for us to believe That had his Judgments proceeded against that City according to the Prophesie of Jonah yet he would have distinguished between the Innocent and the Nocent in respect to their future State and Condition for it was not the Wickedness of the Infants which cried to Heaven but of the Adult When we consider how hardly Almighty God was drawn to inflict those Judgments upon Mens Bodies though grievous Sinners in the Old World in Sodom Gen. 18. and frequently where we reade of the Execution of his Judgments it may justly seem very strange that Men should think that God can be so easily provoked to damn Infants to Hell Torments for him I say to damn poor Infants in Eternal Fire who was so hardly drawn to Inflict on the Ninevites Children so much as a Temporal Judgment Nay he is unwilling to destroy the very Cattel for Man's Sin Jonah 4. which are only capable of Temporal Punishment And can it become us to think that God will send Millions or any poor dying Babes to Hell And pray what have they done thus highly to stir up his Wrath against them Shew the Cause if you can J. B. To the Text Rom. 5. The Free-gift abounded towards all Men to Justification of Life You answer This all must be restrained to all in Christ But by your favour There is none so out of Christ as they come into the World but God hath provided Mercy for them in Christ John 1. 29. so that here is no restraint of the Justification here spoken of till Men abuse the Mercy of God by sinning against their own Souls Nor can your restriction which I suppose would limit this Free-gift to the Elect only hold agreement with the scope of the place for seeing Mankind or all Men are Personated as well in the second as in the First Adam