their spirituall life It is a grace which by vertue of the Covenant consign'd in Baptism does like a Centre transmit effluxes to all the periods and portion of our life our whole life all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this This consideration is of great use besides many other things to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferr'd their Baptism till their death-bed Because Baptism is a laver of sanctification and drowns all our sins and buries them in the grave of our Lord they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism for unlesse they were strangely prevented by a sudden accident a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition but early some of them durst not take it much lesse in the beginning of their years that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth Baptisme hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the dayes of our folly and infirmity and so long as we have not been baptized so long we are out of the state of pardon and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins if we have taken it in the beginning of our dayes 5. The next benefit of Baptism which is also a verification of this is a sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit spiritus amnem Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas Concipit unda Deum sanctámque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem The holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism and makes them prolificall apt to produce children unto God and therefore Saint Leo compares the Font of Baptism to the Womb of the blessed Virgin when it was replenished with the holy Spirit And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord his ministers baptize with water our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery with giving the holy Spirit They are joyned together by S. Paul We are by one Spirit baptized into one body that is admitted into the Church by Baptism of Water and the Spirit This is that which our blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit by Water we are sacramentally dead and buried by the Spirit we are made alive But because these are mysterious expressions and according to the style of Scriture high and secret in spiritual significations therefore that we may understand what these things signifie we must consider it by its real effects and what it produces upon the Soule of a man 1. It is the suppletory of originall Righteousnesse by which Adam was at first gracious with God and which he lost by his prevarication It was in him a principle of wisdome and obedience a relation between God and himself a title to the extraordinary mercies of God and a state of friendship when he fell he was discomposed in all the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken and it so continued in the whole life of man which was stained with the evils of this folly and the consequent mischiefs and therefore when we began the world again entring into the Articles of a new life God gave us his Spirit to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural end which God at first designed to us And therefore as our Baptism is a separation of us from unbelieving people so the descent of the holy Spirit upon us in our Baptism is a consigning or marking us for God as the sheep of his pasture as the souldiers of his Army as the servants of his houshold we are so separated from the world that we are appropriated to God so that God expects of us duty and obedience and all sins are acts of rebellion and undutifulnesse Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and Iohn the Baptist from their mothers womb that is God took them to his own service by an early designation and his Spirit mark'd them to a holy Ministery To this also relates that of S. Paul whom God by a decree separated from his mothers womb to the Ministery of the Gospel the decree did antedate the act of the Spirit which did not descend upon him untill the day of his Baptism What these persons were in order to exterior Ministeries that all the faithful are in order to faith and obedience consigned in Baptism by the Spirit of God to a perpetual relation to God in a continual service and title to his Promises And in this sense the Spirit of God is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} * a seal in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Water washes the body and the Spirit seals the soul viz. to a participation of those Promises which he hath made and to which we receive a title to our Baptism 2. The second effect of the Spirit is Light or Illuminations that is the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Authour of holy thoughts and firm perswasions and sets to his seal that the Word of God is true into the beliefe of which we are then baptized and makes Faith to be a grace and the Understanding resigned and the Will confident and the Assent stronger then the promises and the propositions to be believed because they are belov'd and we are taught the ways of godlinesse after a new manner that is we are made to perceive the secrets of the Kingdome and to love Religion and to long for heaven and heavenly things and to despise the world and to have new resolutions and new preceptions and new delicacies in order to the establishment of Faith and its increment and perseverance {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God sits in the soul when it is illuminated in Baptism as if he sate in his Throne that is he rules by a firm perswasion and intire principles of obedience And therefore Baptism is called in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the baptized {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} illuminated Call to minde the former days in which ye were illuminated and the same phrase is in the 6 to the Hebrewes where the parallel places expound each other For that which S. Paul calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} once illuminated he calls after {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a receiving the knowledge of the truth and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of Baptism the Apostle expresses it still by its Synonymas Tasting of the heavenly gift and made partakers of the holy Ghost sprinkled in our hearts from an evill conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water All which also are
he fulfilled the Law making it up in full measures of the Spirit By these steps Baptism passed on to a divine Evangelical institution which we finde to be consigned by three Evangelists Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It was one of the last Commandements the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his kingdome For he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but Unlesse a man be born of Water and the holy Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises The uncircumcised child whose flesh is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant The Manichees Seleucus Hermias and their followers people of a dayes abode and small Interest but of malicious doctrine taught Baptism not to be necessary not to be used upon this ground because they supposed that it was proper to Iohn to baptize with water and reserved for Christ as his peculiar to baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise He sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire the Spirit appearing like a flame but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water and they did so and their successors after them every where and for ever not expounding but obeying the praeceptive words of their Lord which were almost the last that he spake upon earth And I cannot think it necessary to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments For the words are so plain that they need no exposition and yet if they had been obscure the universal practise of the Apostles and the Church for ever is a sufficient declaration of the Commandement No Tradition is more universal no not of Scripture it self no words are plainer no not the Ten Commandements and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any zealous or lesse discerning person it will need no other refutation but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself sees Scripture to be the Word of God and the Commandements to be the declaration of his Will But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacramnet for this will highly conclude That the Precept was for ever which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings and the susception of it necessary because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the graces of the Sacrament 1. The first fruit is That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ presented unto him consigned with his Sacrament enter into his Militia give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ and in all senses that we can become his Disciples witnessing a good confession and undertaking a holy life and therefore in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are conjoyn'd in the significations as they are in the mystery it is a giving up our names to Christ and it is part of the foundation of the first Principles of the Religion as appears in S. Pauls Catechism it is so the first thing that it is for babes and Neophytes in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity Ecclesiae janua Porta gratiae primus introitus sanctorum ad aeternam Dei Ecclesiae consuetudinem The gates of the Church the door of Grace the first entrance of the Saints to an eternall conversation with God and the Church Sacramentum initiationis intrantium Christianismum investituram S Bernard calls it The Sacrament of initiation and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion and the person so entring is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one of the Religion or a Proselyte and Convert and one added to the number of the Church in imitation of that of S. Luke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God added to the Church those that should be saved just as the Church does to this day and for ever baptizing Infants and Catechumens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are added to the Church that they may be added to the Lord and the number of the inhabitants of Heaven 2. The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Covenant which is an immediate consequent of the first presentation this being the first act of man that the first act of God And this is called by S. Paul a being baptized in one spirit into one body that is we are made capable of the Communion of Saints the blessings of the faithful the priviledges of the Church by this we are as S. Luke calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ordained or disposed put into the order of eternal life being made members of the mystical body under Christ our Head 3. And therefore Baptism is a new birth by which we enter into the new world the new creation the blessings and spiritualties of the Kingdome and this is the expression which our Saviour himselfe used to Nicodemus Unlesse a man be born of Water and the Spirit and it is by S. Paul called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the laver of Regeneration for now we begin to be reckoned in a new Census or account God is become our Father Christ our elder Brother the Spirit the earnest of our inheritance the Church our Mother our food is the body and blood of our Lord Faith is our learning Religion our imployment and our whole life is spiritual and Heaven the object of our Hopes and the mighty price of our high Calling And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us the Spirit of Grace which besides our soul and body is a principle of action of one nature and shall with them enter into the portion of our inherirance And therefore the Primitive Christians who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord usually writing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Iesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour they made an abbreviature by writing onely the Capitals thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which the Heathens in mockery and derision made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies a Fish and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach but the Christians owned the name and turned it into a pious Metaphor and were content that they
Scripture very many other probabilities to perswade the Baptism of Infants but because the places admit of divers interpretations the Arguments have so many diminutions and the certainty that is in them is too fine for easie understandings I have chosen to build the ancient doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary This onely I shall observe That the words of our blessed Lord Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven cannot be expounded to the exclusion of children but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men for if they be both necessary ingredients Water and the Spirit then let us provide water and God will provide the Spirit if we bring wood to the Sacrifice he will provide a Lamb And if they signifie distinctly one is ordinarily as necessary as the other and then Infants must be baptized or not be saved But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other and by Water and the Spirit is meant onely the purification of the Spirit then where is the necessity of Baptism for men It will be as the other Sacrament at most but highly convenient not simply necessary and all the other places will easily be answered if this be avoided But however these words being spoken in so decretory a manner are to be used with fear and reverence and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments that Infants ought not to be baptized or we ought to fear concerning the effect of these decretory words I shall onely adde two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse That the Church of God ever since her numbers are full have for very many ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been baptized in their Infancy and although in the first callings of the Gentiles the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and repenting persons and believers yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents according to the Prophecy of Isaiah Behold I will lift up my hands to the Gentiles and set up a standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Concerning which I shall not onely bring the testimonies of the matter of fact but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition or some Argument from the Fathers which will make their testimony more effectuall in all that shall relate to the Question The Author of the book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy attributed to S. Denis the Areopagite takes notice that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian Religion think it a ridiculous thing that Infants who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries should be partakers of the Sacraments and that professions and abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names He answers that Holy men Governors of Churches have so taught having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ by which answer of his as it appears that he himself was later then the Areopagite so it is so early by him affirmed that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament Concerning which it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe then like scorners deride it in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty For what undecency or incongruity is it that our parents natural or spiritual should stipulate for us when it is agreeable to the practise of all the laws and transactions of the world an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we all were included in the stipulation made with Adam he made a losing bargain for himself and we smarted for his folly and if the faults of Parents and Kings and relatives do bring evil upon their children and subjects and correlatives it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and piety But concerning making an agreement for them we finde that God was confident concerning Abraham that he would teach his children and there is no doubt but Parents have great power by strict education and prudent discipline to efform the mindes of their children to vertue Joshua did expresly undertake for his houshold I and my house will serve the Lord and for children we may better do it because till they are of perfect choice no Government in the world is so great as that of Parents over their children in that which can concern the parts of this Question for they rule over their understandings and children know nothing but what they are told and they believe it infinitely and it is a rare art of the Spirit to engage Parents to bring them up well in the nuriure and admonition of the Lord they are persons obliged by a superinduced band they are to give them instructions and holy principles as they give them meat and it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their children then the Church can for men and women for they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites as the Church story tells of some and consequently are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not really converted and ineffectively baptized and the next day they may change their resolution and grow weary of their Vow and that is the most that children can do when they come to age and it is very much in the Parents whether the children shall do any such thing or no purus insons Ut me collaudem si vivo carus amicis Causa fuit Pater his Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat quid multa pudicum Qui primus virtutis honos servavit ab omni Non solùm facto verùm opprobrio quoque turpi ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur à me gratia major Horat For Education can introduce a habit and a second nature against which children cannot kick unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations And although it fails too often when ever it fails yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less influence into the event then in the present case and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate and less reason in the thing it self and therefore have not so much reason to be confident Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing future events and guessing at the designs of their enemies concerning which they have less reason to be confident then Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed To which I adde this consideration That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and
that some is collated or infused however be it so or no yet upon this account the administration of the Sacrament is not hindred 7. When the Scripture speaks of the effects of or dispositions to Baptism it speaks in general expressions as being most apt to signify a common duty or a general effect or a more universal event or the proper order of things but those general expressions doe not supponere universaliter that is are not to be understood exclusively to all that are not so qualified or universally of all suscipients or of all the subjects of the proposition When the Prophets complain of the Jews that they are faln from God and turned to Idols and walk not in the way of their Fathers and at other times the Scripture speaks the same thing of their Fathers that they walked perversly toward God starting aside like a broken bow In these and the like expressions the holy Scripture uses a Synecdoche or signifies many onely under the notion of a more large and indefinite expression for neither were all the Fathers good neither did all the sons prevaricate but among the Fathers there were enough to recommend to posterity by way of example and among the Children there were enough to stain the reputation of the age but neither the one part nor the other was true of every single person S. Iohn the Baptist spake to the whole audience saying O generation of vipers and yet he did nor mean that all Jerusalem and Iudaea that went out to be baptized of him were such but he under an indeterminate reproofe intended those that were such that is especially the Priests and the Pharisees And it is more considerable yet in the story of the event of Christs Sermon in the Synagogue upon his Text taken out of Isaiah all wondred at his gracious words and bare him witnesse And a little after All they in the Synagogues were filled with wrath that is it was generally so but hardly to be supposed true of every single person in both the contrary humors and usages Thus Christ said to the Apostles Ye have abidden with me in my temptations and yet Iudas was all the way a follower of Interest and the Bag rather then Christ and afterwards none of them all did abide with Christ in his greatest Temptations Thus also to come nearer the present Question the secret effects of Election and of the Spirit are in Scripture attributed to all that are of the outward communion So S. Peter calls all the Christian strangers of the Eastern dispersion Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father and S. Paul saith of all the Roman Christians and the same of the Thessalonians that their faith was spoken of in all the world and yet amongst them it is not to be supposed that all the professors had an unreproveable faith or that every one of the Church of Thessalonica was an excellent and a charitable person and yet the Apostle useth this expression Your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth These are usually significant of a generall custome or order of things or duty of men or design and natural or proper expectation of events such are these also in this very Question As many of you as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ that is so it is regularly and so it will be in its due time and that is the order of things and the designed event but from hence we cannot conclude of every person and in every period of time This man hath been baptized therefore now he is clothed with Christ he hath put on Christ nor thus This person cannot in a spiritual sense as yet put on Christ therefore he hath not been baptized that is he hath not put him on in a sacramentall sense Such is the saying of S. Paul Whom he hath predestinated them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified this also declares the regular event or at least the order of things and the design of God but not the actual verification of it to all persons These sayings concerning Baptism in the like manner are to be understood that they cannot exclude all persons from the Sacrament that have not all those real effects of the Sacrament at all times which some men have at some times and all men must have at some time or other viz. when the Sacrament obtains its last intention But he that shall argue from hence that Children are not rightly baptized because they cannot in a spiritual sense put on Christ concludes nothing unless these propositions did signifie universally and at all times and in every person and in every manner which can no more pretend to truth then that all Christians are Gods Elect and all that are baptized are Saints and all that are called are justified and all that are once justified shall be saved finally These things declare onely the event of things and their order and the usuall effect and the proper design in their proper season in their limited proportions 8. A Negative Argument for matters of fact in Scripture cannot conclude a Law or a necessary or a regular event And therefore supposing that it be not intimated that the Apostles did baptize Infants it follows not that they did not and if they did not it does not follow that they might not or that the Church may not For it is unreasonable to argue The Scripture speaks nothing of the Baptism of the holy Virgin Mother therefore she was not baptized The words and deeds of Christ are infinite which are not recorded and of the acts of the Apostles we may suppose the same in their proportion and therefore what they did not is no rule to us unless they did it not because they were forbidden So that it can be no good argument to say The Apostles are not read to have baptized Infants therefore Infants are not to be baptized but thus We do not find that Infants are excluded from the common Sacraments and Ceremonies of Christian Institution therefore we may not presume to exclude them For although the Negative of a Fact is no good Argument yet the Negative of a Law is a very good one We may not say the Apostles did not therefore we may not but thus they were not forbidden to do it there is no Law against it therefore it may be done No mans deeds can prejudicate a Divine Law expressed in general terms much lesse can it be prejudiced by those things that were not done That which is wanting cannot be numbred cannot be effectual therefore Baptize all nations must signify all that it can signify all that are reckoned in the Capitations and accounts of a Nation Now since all contradiction to this Question depends wholly upon these two grounds The Negative Argument in matter of Fact and the Pretences that Faith and
for a storm for their children were circumcised and if not baptized then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of for S. Paul said unto you Whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law These children therefore that were circumcised stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Laws of Ceremonies to be presented into the Temple to pay their price to be redeemed with silver and gold to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal ordinances and therefore if they had been thus left it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult they used to do it for less matters To which let this be added That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christs Ascension and S. Marks Gospel twelve years In the mean time to what Scriptures did they appeal by the analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions whence did they prove their Articles They onely appealed to the Old Testament and onely added what their Lord superadded Now either it must be said that our blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized which is no where pretended and if it were cannot at all be proved or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God and preach the Religion it is plain that by the Analogy of the Old Testament that is of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come and to have suffered they also approved the Baptism of Infants or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews of which also the Church did then principally consist 7. That Baptism which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection doth also equally consign Infants to it hath nothing that I know of pretended against it there being the same signature and the same grace and in this thing all being alike passive and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of grace and Infants have an equall necessity as being lyable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents and dying sooner then men and women and less able to complain and more apt to be pityed and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life and a speedy death infelicitate priscorum hominum with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents and therefore have as great need as any and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another 8. And after all this if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace we have nothing to relye upon but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of salvation save onely we are to adde this that because of this law Infants are not personally capable but the Church for them as for all others indefinitely we have reason to believe that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplyed but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability This we may be certain of that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation for by nature we are children of wrath and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature either therefore children must be put into the state of grace or they shall dwell for ever where Gods face does never shine Now there are but two wayes of being put into the state of grace and salvation the inward by the Spirit and the outward by Water which regularly are together If they be renewed by the Spirit what hinders them to be baptized who receive the holy Ghost as well as we If they are not capable of the Spirit they are capable of Water and if of neither where is their title to heaven which is neither internal nor external neither spiritual nor sacramental neither secret nor manifest neither natural nor gracious neither original nor derivative And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter heaven without any difference expressed or case reserved we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children but may weep as they that have no hope We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand and then it cannot miscarry and though we know nothing of the children yet we know much of Gods goodness But when God hath permitted it to us that is offered and permitted children to our ministery whatever happens to the Innocents we may well fear left God will require the souls at our hands and we cannot be otherwise secure but that it will be said concerning our children which S. Ambrose used in a case like this Anima illa potuit salva fieri si habuisset purgationem This soul might have gone to God if it had been purified and washed We know God is good infinitely good but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness and he tempts him that leaves the usual way and pretends it is not made for him and yet hopes to be at his journeys end or expects to meet his childe in heaven when himself shuts the door against him which for ought he knows is the onely one that stands open S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants therefore he is called durus Pater Infantium though I know not why the original of that opinion should be attributed to him since S. Ambrose said the same before him as appears in his words above quoted in the margent And now that I have enumerated the blessings which are consequent to Baptism and have also made apparent That Infants can receive these blessings I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring children to Baptism If it be certain they may receive these good things by it it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety and sacriledge and uncharitableness in the world Nay if it be onely probable that they receive these blessings or if it be but possible they may nay unless it be impossible they should and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty innocents to let their crying be unpityed and their natural misery eternally irremediable and their sorrows without remedy and their souls no more capable of relief then their bodies of Physick and their death left with the sting in and their Souls without Spirits to go to God and no Angel guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and Gods Church All these are sad stories There are in