unto you and to your children and to all that are afarre of even as many as the Lord our God shall call where they say Peter witnesseth that the divine promise belongs to those which by reason of their birth are farre of but by the wonderfull providēce of God are called to that ordinance by lawfull meanes such as these before named and Chamier the great protectour of our religion against Bellarmine not to trouble you with what the Papists say affirmes that if our servants vvere truely servants such as Abrahams vvere they then drevv a right from their masters for Baptisme for vve read sayes he that Abraham circumcised all his servants but such servants as for the most part vve have novv a dayes because indeed they are free men hee thinkes should not be so handled in the same capacity hee thinkes to be also such as by the right of vvarre are subjected to Princes for such kind of subjects also remaine free which if it be true and that that exception onely lyes against their Baptisme with all the great things it seals and conveighes to us I should much bewayle the losse of slavery to the Christian world since one good man by that tenure might have made a hundred and a hundred infidels by being subjected to one man might have bene Christians in a moment Thus you see how farre they make the covenant extend indeed the parallell of circumcision carryes it strongly and for one as well as another you see therefore that which qualifies for infant Baptisme is some good and pertinent relation to a beleever but if you aske me now what denominates this beleever and qualifies him for communicating this Christian qualification Chamier sayeth vvee allovv not all infants to be baptized but those onely of beleevers that is of baptized persons So that as the Baptisme in the parent qualifyes for baptisme in the infant Tom. 4. p. 270. Not to inlarge in this the charity of the world is very great and if Mr. Davenport mistooke not in his complaint in his writing to the Classis of Amsterdam hee saith that there was required of him an unlimited baptizing of all infants which were presented in the church of what nation or sect soever although that either of the parents were Christians were not otherwayes manifest then by answering Yea at the reading of the liturgie of Baptisme publikely or by nodding their head or some other gesture they seemed to be willing Booke of complaints 1.2 And that you may see this further cleare in the authority of a learned man who speakes not onely his owne judgement but the judgement of other orthodoxe with him VValleus a reverend Professor of Leyden in his treatise De Baptis infant p. 494. saith thus Quaeritur ergo de infantibus eorum quorum parentes sunt impij etsi nomine Christiani c. It is demaunded concerning the children of them whose parents are wicked although Christians in name or whose parents are excommunicated or whose parents are hereticks or Idolaters as the infants of Papists Anabaptists c. By way of answer hee allowes all such children to be baptized VVe thinke saith he that Baptisme is not to be denyed to those qui ex stirpe sunt Christiana which are of a Christian stock and which without an interruption of a publike Apostasy from the faith may referre their kindred to the faithfull such as in Christian common-wealthes are those procreated of Christian and baptized parents onely he would not have them baptized against their parents consent because they be their goods and possession and hee would have their parēts or those which offer them to baptisme answer that they will bring them up in the Christian profession vvhich if they doe vve judge sayes he that all infants vvhich come from a Christian stock should be baptized if they be offered to baptisme according to the order of the Church although their next parents should labour vvith unholines of life or heresy or the crime of idolatry And this hee goes on to proove strenuously as well he may from the manifest perpetuall practise of the whole Church of Israel in the administration of circumcision which as in a maine proportion it helpes to the baptizing of infants so it will help also to severall such consequences as those are from this opinion so stated of the learned and orthodoxe you may see that it is no such great honour to be able to intitle infants to baptisme which is common to you with unholy persons with excommunicate and with Idolaters And secondly that it is an effect of great charity to intitle the children of such a parentage to regeneration and the Holy Ghost For to proceed Though now in the derivative title for the chayne of Baptisme they all agree that what ever title the child hath comes by vertue of the fathers covenant yet the immediate qualification is inherent in the infant for they affirme that Christian infants have repentance faith and regeneration The Lutherans are so much of this opinion if you will beleeve Bellarmine Tom. 2. p. 294. f. that they beleeve that infants vvhilst they are baptized use reason heare the vvord of God beleeve love vvhich as hee affirmes vvas publikely determined in the Synode of VVittenbergh An. 1536. Which as hee saith doth so openly repugne to the truth as it doth injury to humane sence for how is it credible saith he that an infant which cryes and resists what he can when hee is washed or sprinkled should understand what he doeth The Calvinists and more orthodoxe Divines receive it generally and assuredly that infants bring to baptisme as their immediate qualification regeneration faith repentance c. though not actuall or by way of declaration to others they argue thus If infants naturally are some way capable of Adams sinne so of unbeleefe disobedience transgression then Christian infants supernaturally and by grace are someway capable of Christs righteousnes and so of faith obedience and sanctification but the forner is true therefore the latter The consequence they proove hence that else they would not see the kingdome of God Iohn 3.5.6 Iesus ansvvered and sayd unto him Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be borne of vvater and of the spirit hee cannot enter into the kingdome of God that vvhich is borne of the flesh is flesh and that vvhich is borne of the spirit is spirit but Christian infants dying in infancy shall see the kingdome of God and not be damned therefore they are borne againe of the spirit and so must needs in some measure have repentance faith and holynes Againe they say that if wee cannot object Gods worke in nature but doe beleeve that our infants are reasonable creatures and are borne not bruit beasts but men though actually they can manifest no reason nor understanding more then beasts then neither can we justly object Gods worke in grace but are to beleeve that our infants are sanctified creatures and are borne
beleevers not infidels though outwardly they can manifest no faith or sanctification to us Ainsworth pag. 49.50 whom I quote as being by all acknowledged a learned man in this opinion wherein hee concurres as wee shall see with the streame of our Divines not to be suspected The like to this saith Walleus de Bapt. Infant p. 493. Infants are to be reckoned amongst beleevers because the seede or spirit of faith is in them vvhich some call a habit others an inclination from vvhence by degrees through the hearing of the vvord actuall faith is formed sometimes sooner sometimes later This in the next pag. 494. hee prooves Because else they vvould not be saved Rom. 8.9 If any have not the spirit of God he is none of his And Iohn 3.5 No uncleane thing shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but infants by nature are uncleane are purged by the blood of Christ the kingdome of heaven belongs to them they please God c. This is layd for a ground amongst the Calvinists concerning Baptisme That Baptisme is onely a signe and seale of regeneration already wrought Oecolamp de verb. Dom. cap. 3. Aqua mystica in Baptismo non regenerat nec efficit filios Dei sed declarat the mysticall vvater in Baptisme doth not regenerate nor make men sonnes of God but declares So Zwinglius Baptismus non aliter Ecclesiae Christi signum est quam exercitus aliquis signatur non quod signum hoc conjungit Ecclesiae sed qui jam conjunctus est publicam tesseram accipit Baptisme is the signe of the Church as the ensigne of an army it doth not joyne you to the Church but it declares you joyned So Beza Nihil obsignatur nisi quod jam habetur nothing is seald but vvhat is there already of this opinion is Calvin fully as it were easy to quote him saving that in answering the Anabaptists he sayth This objection is ansvvered in a vvord by saying that children are baptized into faith and repentance to come actuall he meanes for he addes according to the first opinion quoted of vvhich though vvee see not the appearance neverthelesse the seede is planted there by the secret operation of the holy Spirit so as hee would have faith and repentance there in the habit that God may not seale to a blanck nor give a lying signe The like saith Pemble a late and able Divine That vvhich is signified in our baptisme is our justification by the blood of Christ and our sanctification by the Spirit of Christ Baptisme is the seale of both unto us and infants may be partakers of both being vvasht from the guilt of sinne by the blood of Christ in vvhom they are reconciled to God and actually justified before him and also purified in part from the uncleannesse of sinne by the infusion of grace from the Holy Ghost vvhat then should hinder vvhy those infants should not be vvashed vvith the vvater of the Sacrament So also Davenant in his comment upon the 2. chapt of the Colossians to quote no more where conflicting with the Anabaptists he saith As for infants because they are not sinners by their ovvne act but by an hereditary habit they have the mortification of sinne and faith not putting forth it self but included in an habituall principle of grace Novv that the Spirit of Christ can and doth ordinarily vvorke in them an habituall principle of grace no vvise man vvill deny From all those testimonies wee may observe that the cleare reason of the thing inforces men to allow as necessary to Baptisme in generall the qualification of regeneration faith c. how this now will fit infants Baptisme wee shall consider hereafter for the present wee joyne issue with them in these three things First that a personall holynes not derivative or imputed onely must be the ground of Sacraments 2 That this holynes must be regeneration 3 That the habits of faith and repentance are to be esteemed such I proove not these things because they are cleare in themselves and taken for graunted by those already quoted onely in these things wee joyne with them and so farre agree together CHAP. VIII In which are contained severall queries and considerations raised from the premisses declaring what little ground there will appeare from their owne principles and concessions to conclude for Infant Baptisme THese things thus supposed I make these doubts about the baptizing of the infants of beleevers First I would aske whether all infants of beleevers have necessarily and assuredly those habits which must of necessity be concluded since it is their personall qualificatiō for Baptisme and therefore you must have good grounds to judge that they have it one as well as another First of all Peter Martyr sayes that I vvill be the God of thee and of thy seede is not an universall promise but hath place onely in the predestinate and therefore upon 1. Cor. 7.14 else vvere your children uncleane but novv are they holy he saith Promissio non est generalis de omni semine sed tantum de illo in quo rectè consentit electio alioquin posteritas Israelis Esau fuerunt ex Abraham And therefore affirmes that the children of the saints are borne holy vvhen they are predestinate and this agreeth with reason for if you make that holynes as before the infusion of gratious habits yee must suppose election without which such gratious habits are never infused unlesse to make good this opinion you will allow falling from grace which I am sure our selves and those we desire to satisfy will not do This being said I would aske upon what ground the Saints can suppose all their children to be elected or why they should deny any infants baptisme since experience tells us that the children of many unbeleevers if we will judge by the fruites and effects which is the surest judgement are elected and many children of beleevers reprobated especially now since the sluce is taken up the Gospel preached to every creature under heaven Againe consider how cold a ground this is for infants baptisme your children are holy by being borne of you that is regenerated and so qualified for ordinances if at least they be elected and I seale to them their holynes the kingdome of heaven if they be elected as if a King should say I confirme this towne to you and yours if at least it hath pleased me or shall please me to give it you But if you say wee have reason to hope well of them according to that else vvere your children unholy but novv are they holy for so saith Peter Martyr upon that place Bene sperantes quod ut sunt secundum carnem semen sanctorum ita etiam sunt electionis divinae participes Spiritum Sanctum gratiam Christi habeant Hoping vvell that as they are according to the flesh the seed of the Saints so they are also partakers of Divine election and have the Holy Spirit and the grace
faith of Abraham that is beleeve as hee did if they would pretend to the sonneship wee speake of so as in this 16. verse the opposition is onely betweene the faithfull under the Law the faithfull under the Gospel so as the law and faith are not opposed here simply but as circumcision was an adjunct or no adjunct to faith that is as true beleevers were either of the Iewes or Gentiles and so these words are not to be taken as the 14. vers If they vvhich are of the lavv be heires faith is made voide and the promise made of none effect Here you see one fatherhood Abraham is the father of all beleevers whether Iewes or Gentiles So in another consideration you have Sarah said to be the mother of all good obedient women who are called her children 1. Pet. 3.6 But besides this Abraham may be considered under the notion of another fatherhood of which the Iewes were apt enough to bragge namely a carnall generation that they had Abraham to their father as appeares by the reproofe that Iohn gave them Mat. 3.9 Thinke not to say vvithin your selves vvee have Abraham to our father Now in opposition to this fatherhood considered alone is that added verse 17. of 4. Rom. where the Apostle quoting the promise Gen. 17.5 I vvill make thee a father of many nations adds this before him vvhom hee beleeved even God vvho quickeneth the dead c. As if he should say Abraham is the father of us all not in respect of his carnall paternity but of his spirituall which is before God vvhom hee beleeved it is said to be before God because founded in faith by which wee are commended to God He adds also VVho quickneth the dead and calleth those things vvhich are not as though they vvere by which wee have all a patterne or glasse of our vocation by which is proposed a beginning or entry not into our first birth but into our hope of life to come to wit that when wee are called by God wee goe out of nothing as not having the least sparke or seede of good in us which may render us capable of the kingdome of God but on the contrary must dye to our selves that wee may be proper for Gods call whose call is so effectuall as a simple will of his or signe thereof produceth the greatest and highest existencies The like distinction of a double paternity sonneship to wit after the flesh and after the spirit that is by carnall generation by faith yee have Rom. 9.6.7.8 Not as though the vvord of God hath taken none effect for they are not all Israel vvhich are of Israel neither because they are the seede of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seede be called that is they vvhich are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed Where the Apostles intention is to make it appeare that notwithstanding the great defectiō of the Iewes yet the truth of the divine promise is not diminished For they are not all Israel sayes hee vvhich are of Israel because they are not the children of the promise but of the flesh and can pretend title onely to Israel their father by a carnall generation vers 7. Neither because they are the seede of Abraham are they children that is the like may be said also of Abraham It is not their carnall generation of which they are apt to boast that gives them a true notion of sonneship in respect of the spirituall promises made to Abraham for so onely by faith they gave the title of Abrahams seede as before But in Isaac shall thy seede be called this he explaines vers 8. that is they vvhich are the children of the flesh those are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seede The sence is That promise of God made to Abraham by which hee made so great a difference amongst his children that Ishmael laid aside and rejected onely the posterity of Isaac should be called his seed saying in Isaac shall thy seede be called teacheth us thus much that neither they all nor onely are to be reputed for the true seede of Abraham which according to the flesh are issued from Abraham but those which are the sonnes of the promise that is which are regenerated according to the spirit by faith according to that promise In thy seede shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Here you have a distinction as it were of two Abrahams a begetting Abraham and a beleeving Abraham and also of two seedes the children of the flesh that is by carnall generation onely and the children of the promise This allegory hath its foundation in that which the Apostle saith Gal. 4.22.23 For it is vvritten Abraham had tvvo sonnes the one by a bond mayd the other by a free vvoman but hee vvho vvas of the bond-vvoman vvas borne after the flesh but he of the free vvoman vvas by promise where hee affirmes that Ishmael was borne according to the flesh but Isaac according to the spirit that is he onely by a naturall power of generation but Isaac not so much according to the flesh but miraculously as it were by the restoring of a generative vertue to Abraham for the making good of the promise Now saith hee those onely which according to that of which Isaac was a type are borne by promise those and those onely are counted for the seede Rom. 9.8 They vvhich are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seede According to which is that which is affirmed Gal. 3.7.9 Knovv yee therefore that they vvhich are of faith the same are the children of Abraham and vers 9. So then they vvhich be of faith are blessed vvith faithfull Abraham In the first of those verses out of the former reasonings he bids them conclude take it for granted that not those which are of workes which hold by that tenure but those which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham Againe hee perstringeth the Iewes who gloried in their carnall generation that they were Abrahams sonnes according to the flesh the 9. verse is a reason of the 8. where hee sayes that the Scripture that is the spirit that writ the Scripture foreseeing that God vvould justify the heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all nations be blessed that is either in thy seede which is Christ who onely is apprehended made ours by faith or as many of the antients expound this place and Calvine is of the same judgement In thee that is according to the imitation and after the similitude of thee hee being as Calvin sayes in this the patterne rule of us all and therefore is called our father as being the primitive patterne made by God and this
interpretation the words of the 9. verse seeme to imply So then they vvhich be of faith are blessed vvith faithfull Abraham which is an illation or inference of the foregoing reason in this verse the principall Emphasis lyes in the word faithfull where the former mentioned distinction is againe intimated there is a begetting Abraham and a beleeving Abraham it is with the beleeving Abraham the faithfull Abraham that all nations are blessed by being as hee was of faith the word blessing however diversly taken in the Scripture yet here it is taken as Calvin expounds it for our adoption into the inheritance of life eternall Having therefore at large opened those places which give light to this cōsideration made good out of the Scripture that double fatherhood of Abraham the one carnall by his begetting the other spirituall by his beleeving there remayneth nothing to add but this in a word that we can pretend nothing of sonneship to Abraham by the first tenure scil of begetting by which tenure the Iewes partooke of circumcision but by the other of beleeving that is after the example and imitation of Abraham who for that he so antiently and so eminently beleeved in God carryes the title of the father of all beleevers who do the like as Sarah his wife doth of the mother of good women and this faith not carnall generation is that that intitles us to Christian ordinances And to make this last which is the summe of all a little plainer I shall add this that by vertue of the parallel of circumcision that onely qualifies for ordināces that is derivable from parents to their children by generatiō for neither was Isaac circumcised because hee was borne after the spirit nor Ishmael debard from it because as a type he was borne after the flesh but both the one and the other had it by vertue of their naturall and carnall generation by which they were made of the houshold and family of Abraham Now wee pretending to be Abrahams children by faith not by carnall generation cannot pretend to ordinances by carnall generation as the others did And secondly forasmuch as by carnall generation wee our selves cānot derive faith which is that which qualifies for our ordinances therefore no fatherhood of ours can derive a right for ordinances unles wee understand such a fatherhood as Paul pretended to when hee calls Onesimus his son saying Hee had begotten him in his bonds Phile. 10. Or when he tells the Corinthians 1. Corinth 4.15 Though yee have ten thousand instructors in Christ yet have yee not many fathers for in Iesus Christ I have begotten you through the Gospel and so we may be the father as well of other mens children as of our owne Now then if we cannot pretend to be Abrahams children and so consequently to partake of ordinances by the way which the Iewes did which was carnall generation but by a way quite of another kind namely a way of personall beleeving And secondly if wee cannot pretend to a fatherhood to others in deriving by carnall generation the qualification of ordinances which is faith it must then of necessity remaine that the Iewes partaking of circumcision by vertue of having Abraham to their father and deriving that title to their posterity by the same way of carnall generation is no president or patterne to us of either being Abrahams children so qualified for baptisme in such a way or of our deriving to our posterity any such qualification either for that or any other ordinance by the like way of carnall generation And indeed in the Gospell notion we all are children and there is no father but Abraham for to gayne the title of father there must be either a generative power which remaynes onely in the spirit of whom as Christians wee are borne Not of flesh nor of blood nor the vvill of man Or there must be the eminency of an example or coppy and so wee use to say the first in every kind is the rule of the rest Now it hath pleased God to give this honour to Abraham who for the eminency and antientnes of his faith is styled by God and will carry that title to the worlds end of the father of us all Let us be content therefore to be children and glory in that and let Abraham injoy his priviledge or if wee will needs be fathers also let us imitate Paul and be vve vvorkers vvith God and labour in Iesus Christ to beget men through the Gospel CHAP. XII Wherein is handled the fourth Question proposed to answer the argument drawne from Circumcision to wit How farre the Iewes by vertue of their being the sonnes of Abraham could pretend to new Testament Ordinances wherein also besides severall others that much agitated place is opened considered of Acts 2.38.39 FOurth Question How farre the Iewes by vertue of their being the sonnes of Abraham could pretend to new Testament ordinances and if they by any such birthright could not then nor wee by any such birthright or carnall generation First we will shew how farre they might pretend Secondly where the stop lay and where they went equall with others They had this great honour advantage that the Gospel was first offered to them the Iewes were brought neerer God then others and therefore the advantage of the Ievv and circumcision vvas much every vvay because to them vvere committed the oracles of God Rom. 3.1.2 And this kind of dispensation God pleased to continue in the promulgation of the Gospel therefore Christin his first mission charged the Apostles Not to goe into the vvay of the gentiles nor into any city of the Samaritanes which were as gentiles to them but to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel and preach the Gospel to them Matth. 10.5.6.7 This priority and advantage Paul mentions Rom. 2.10 Glory honour and peace to every man that vvorketh good to the Ievv first and also to the Gentile and after the ascension of Christ in Peters effectuall sermon which was crowned with the conversion of 3000 soules he keepes this method Acts 2.38.39 Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sinnes and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost for the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afarre of even as many as the Lord our God shall call In the way hee tooke to raise those which were cast downe hee bids them Repent and be baptized that was the thing to be done on their parts for their restoring and raising of which hee tells them the effects first the great and mayne one that they should receive remission of sinnes and as a consequence and earnest as it were of this proper for those first times they should also receive the gift of the holy Ghost that is whereas they were amazed and wondered to see this befall the Apostles why saith hee it is not to us