was come to Ierusalem be assayed to joyne himselfe to the disciples Act. 9 26. And the whole body fitly joyned together c. Eph. 4 16. And a fitly framing of matter together for a house or habitation of God as Eph. 2.21 22. All which is the Saints entering covenant with God which covenant is their forme that gives them a being in such a relation or fellowship Isa 43.21 1 Pet. 2.9 And so much in briefe of the constitution of a Church or of the Saints entering into Church-fellowship and the causes producing the same And now being come into her own land as of old was signified Ezek. 36.24 25. which is into a visible covenant with God or union with Christ and so become his own shee is now to be washed with water in Baptisme as Ezek. 16.8 9. Mat. 28.19 Eph. 4 5. And thus being in covenant with God by faith in Jesus Christ in which their state consists and so the agreement made the covenant passed between them now the seale is see to which is the outward ordinance of Baptisme to confirme the same which being done she is then to enter upon her holy communion in all the rest of Gods holy ordinances thereunto belonging for her comfort and well-being And thus I have by Gods gracious assistance done with this subject charged upon me partly by such as feare the Lord in a far Countrey beyond the Seas and partly by my own conscience for the truths sake at home And good Reader confider well before you judge and what I see not teach thou me c. Job 34.31 But let not my unweary Readâ—â— be offended with me though I speake a word or two more It may be some will aske me if I condemne all Churches but onely such as I have here described To which I answer that I condemne no Church which God approves of in his word secondly I condemne no Church at all for I goe not about to shew who are false but what is true and it is enough for me if such a Church as hath been spoken of be granted to be true and let all others alone to stand and fall to their own Master and in regard of those reproachfull clamours cast upon all without exception that seem to be of my judgement about Baptisme I shall yet make bold with my Reader briefly to declare a word of my faith what I beleeve and hold to be truth and desire to practise the same and so leave all to God for the godly Reader to judge what difference there is between him and me in the maine that men should be so incensed against me as to seeke my life as some have done the Lord in mercy forgive them and lay it not to their charge And now for my faith First I doe beleeve that there is onely one God who is distinguished in three persons God the Father God the Sonne and God the holy Ghost yet but one in nature or essence without division and uncommunicable who made the world and all things therein by the word of his power and governes them all by his wise providence Secondly I beleeve that God made man in his own Image an upright and a perfect creature consisting of soule and body which body God framed of the earth and breathed a soul into the same To whom God gave a law upon his keeping of which depended all his happinesse and upon the contrary attended his misery which soon took effect for he breaking that Law he fell under the curse and the wrath of God lay upon him all his posterity By which fall Man lost the knowledge of God utterly disabled himself of all ability ever to recover the same againe Thirdly I beleeve God out of the counsell of his own will did before he made the world elect and choose some certain number of his foreseen fallen creatures and appointed them to eternall life in his Sonne for the glory of his grace which number so elected shall unavoydably be saved and come to glory and the rest left to themselves in their sinne to glorifie his justice Fourthly I beleeve that God in the fulnesse of his owne time did send his Sonne the second person who in the wombe of the Virgin Mary assumed mans nature and in the same he suffered death upon the Crosse onely as he was man to satisfie his Fathers justice for the sinnes of all his elect and them onely and that he lay three dayes three nights in his grave from whence he arose the third day by the power of his Godhead for the justification of all for whose sinnes be dyed and that in the same body Christ dyed be arose from tho dead and afterwards ascended into heaven the place of glory where he was before and there to remaine untill he comes at the last day to judge the world in righteousnesse Fifthly I beleeve that God of his grace in his own time effectually calls such as shall be saved to the knowledge sive as a childe in the parents begetting of it and so God by his Spirit works faith in the hearts of all such to beleeve in Christ and his righteousnes only for justification And thus they are made righteous before God in Christ and so conformable to the will of the Father through the Sonne and also made holy through the worke of regeneration and the holy Spirit of grace dwelling in them yet all such have still as long as they live here in the flesh remaining in them an old man that originall corruption the flesh that warres against the Spirit which hinders them in their obedience both to God and man and many times draws them to that which is evill and contrary to their intentions yet all of them shall through Christ overcome and safely be brought to glory at last Sixthly I beleeve the holy Scriptures to be the word of God and have the onely authoritie to binde the conscience to the obedience of all therein contained and are the allsufficient Rule by the Spirit of God to guide a man in all his obedience both to God and man Seventhly As for the absence of originall sin and power in the will to receive and refuse grace and salvation being generally offered by the Gospel and Christs dying for all persons universally to take away sinne that stood between them and salvation and so laid downe his life a ransome for all without exception and for such as have been once in Gods love so as approved of by him in Christ for salvation and in the covenant of grace and for such to fall so as to be damned eternally and all of the like nature I doe beleeve is a doctrine from beneath and not from above and the teachers of it from Satan and not from God and to be rejected as such that oppose Christ and his Gospel Eightly I doe beleeve the resurrection of the dead that all shall rise and come to judgement and every one give account of himselfe
the same And to affirme this to be Gods way to brings persons to the faith by working so upon them by his Spirit in their infancy argues some ignorance of the true nature and worke of grace as the Gospell holds it forth And to be capable of the grace of the Covenant which must be understood of the promise containing the blessings and priviledges thereof in the holy dispensations of the same We shall finde in the Scriptures of God all the sweet promises of Grace under the New Testament holding forth their blessings and blessed priviledges onely to such as beleeve And that to the Elect themselves as they are considered in Christ and appeare so by some effect of grace declaring their faith and they to be such as God approves of in his Sonne and so to have visible right to those priviledges they are visibly justified by and possessed in as such that have a visible right unto the same Which can come to us Gentiles no other way then by Christ and faith in his Name And if any shall object from the testimony of John the Baptist Obj. that he is said to be filled with the holy Ghost from his Mothers wombe Luk. 1.15 c. and hence conclude that Infants may have faith To this I answer in a word Ans first what Infants may have is one thing and what Infants can from this Scripture be proved to have is another For if any thing from this Text can be proved for Infants it will be that they are filled with the holy Ghost from the Mothers wombe as John is said to be which is another thing then to beleeve as Act. 6 5. 4 31. Secondly All such so testified of by God as he did of John I shall acknowledge as much as is here meant to be in him to be also in them so testified of by the holy Ghost But to affirme because God so testified of John the Baptist in the wombe therefore the same holds true upon all other Infants likewise This is indeed weaker then infancy so to affirme Job 31.18 and grosser then ignorance for any to beleeve Job is said to be a Guide to the distressed from his Mothers wombe Shall it be concluded thence that he was a Guide to such when he was an Infant or if he were so must it needs follow that all Infants are capable Guides because it is said so of him And lastly I am not against any that have faith but absolutely for all that beleeve whether Infants or others so that their faith appeares by such effects as the Word of God approves of Otherwise what have I or any man to doe to meddle with the secret and unrevealed things of God either to justifie or condemne And whereas in the former Proposition there seemes a restraint made of the worke of grace in an Infant over there is in other persons by saying onely so farre as is necessary to union with Christ and justification to life thereby Now for answer to this we shall first consider what in this sense is to be understood by Christ and secondly what by union with Christ so as to be justified thereby By Christ here I understand him so as the Gospel holds him forth in the work of mans Redemption in reference to his death resurrection and the onely righteousnesse that commends such to God as beleeve in the same And so Christ thus considered is the onely subject of life to every soule that shall be united unto him by faith To which union with Christ these three things must be minded as essentiall to the same First Gods revealing tendering of Christ as the alsufficient onely way to life Secondly A heart fitly disposed by faith to apprehend and receive Christ so tendered And lastly The Spirit of grace uniting and knitting of the heart and Christ togegether as aforesaid And this I understand to be that effectuall and substantiall union with Christ to justification of life which the Word of God approves of that most decide all differences in matters of Religion For justification to life ever presupposeth apprehension of Christ as the subject of life and a true application of the same by faith as aforesaid The Gospel holds forth no other justification to salvation but what is or faith and faith ever presupposes the parties knowledge of the thing beleeved Rom. 10.14 Heb. 11.6 Now let this be well examined by the rule of truth then let the Reader judge how capable Infants are of union with Christ and justification to life thereby Now for to darken and obscure this truth there are these evill consequences as absurdities brought in as to follow upon the same First If Infants should not be capable of those graces aforesaid then they were not elected Obj. Secondly Then their bodies should not be raised againe to life And lastly We have not infallible judgement but may be mistaken as in the case of Simon Magus c. To this in a word and first I would know of such Ans whether Infants with referrence to their non-age were the subjects of Gods Election Secondly If Infants so considered are capable subjects of glory And if not as I suppose none will affirme then why any more in Grace then in Glory And for any to appoint God a way how to save Infants or to draw out to themselves a way how the holy Spirit of Grace must sanctifie them to salvation above what is written I thinke it is somewhat too much boldnesse God will have his creature to keepe onely to his Word as the Rule by which man must judge all things and the Word of God shews that he hath elected persons to the meanes as well as to the end being the way unto the same And that was the Adoption of Sonnes and to be called and justified by beleeving in Jesus Christ as Ephes 1.4 5. Rom. 8.29 30. 1 Pet. 1.2 2 Thes 2.13 14. And therefore the ground of Gods calling us and our beleeving is attributed unto out Election Act. 2.47 Act. 13.48 Rom. 8.28 Rom. 11.7 And to the glory of God as the cause of all by the dispensation of his grace upon his chosen in Christ and their free obedience unto him againe as Rom 9.23 24. Ephes 1.6.12 These things God hath revealed in his Word and further I dare not goe but leaving the secret things to God who gives not account of all his wayes And for the raising of Infants bodies doth none rise but such as are in visible union with Christ as for invisible things we meddle not with It is the power of God that raiseth the dead and not union with Christ 1 Thes 4.16 And when any of Gods Elect can by the Scriptures be shewed to die in their infancy then it will be granted that their bodies are raised to life eternall onely as they are Infants Nor that I hold all that dye in their infancy to be damned but being a secret thing I leave the
unsound consequences and false inferences and lay by the plaine testimony of Scripture that must decide all doubts and controversies in matters of Religion For sure I am there is neither command nor example in all the New Testament for any such practise as I know and whatsoever is done in the worship of God or obedience to Christ without his command or apparant example approved of by Christ is of man as a voluntary will worship Col. 2 20 21 22. Mark 7.7 8. after the commandements and doctrines of men the which Christ testifies against as a vaine thing This way the Gentiles are more forward in then ever the Jewes were and more bitter against such that doe oppose their traditions then ever they were And therefore I beseech thee Good Reader beware of opposing the Gospell and Christs holy order in the same Rom. 11. For which thing God fell out with his ancient people the Jewes and threatens to make the Gentiles drinke of the same cup if they oppose the power and authoritie of his Sonne Jesus Christ as they did and doe not the Gentiles this Yea and much more then ever the Jewes did The Gentiles are set forth in Scripture to be the greatest enemies that Christ and his Gospell hath in the world Psal 2. Ezek. 38. Rev. 20.8 9. Rev. 9 1-11 Rev. 12.4 Rev. 13.1 2. Rev. 17.13 14.17 Rev 11.2 Rev. 11.8 Rev. 17.17 Rev. 11.2 Luk. 21 24 Rom â— 11.20 21 22. for they rage and bend up their forces against Christ and his people and the Gentiles they compasse the Campe of the Saints to devoure them Of them is the bottomlesse pit out of which come the Locusts with a King over them and of them is the blouddie Dragon that stands against the Church to suppresse and devour Christs holy order and Government and her subjection to the same Of the Gentiles rises that beastly State with which the Kings of the earth joyne their powers against Christs Kingly power and Subjects and they tread underfoote the holy Citie Not the earthly Citie Jerusalem as some weakly affirme but the holy heavenly order of the Gospell and the true Subjects thereof The Gentiles Crucifie Christ in his mysticall body which is more then to slay him in his humane body There is a time set for the long suffering of God towards the Gentiles Which time being once expired God will have as strict account of the Gentiles as ever he tooke of the Jewes Which day shall be as blacke and darke over the Gentiles as ever it hath been to the Jewes And more in that their sinne hath been greater against grace Christ and his members by many degrees then ever the Jewes were And therefore woe woe unto the Gentiles because the day of their account draws neere Therefore good Christian Reader be well advised and doe not take part with any that shall oppose Christ in his sweet and comely order among his Saints and kingly Government over his Subjects Wee see by apparant example how dangerous a thing it is to oppose Kings but Christ is the King of Kings therefore kisse the Sonne least he be angry Psal 2.12 JOHN SPILSBERY A TREATISE CONCERNING THE SVBIECT OF BAPTISME VVherein is handled and also disproved Infants Baptisme The Covenant God made with Abraham and his seed Gen. 17. And how the same agrees with Beleevers and their seed under the New Testament with the Priviledges thereof The Baptisme administred by a false Antichristian Power no Ordinance of GOD. The orderly constitution of both Church and Ordinance With many other things briefely handled FOR a more orderly proceeding in the following Discourse I shall first lay downe the Arguments and Objections and then give Answer to the same And for some things in the beginning I shall passe over briefely they not much concerning the point in hand As the Scriptures being a perfect rule of all things both for faith and order this I confesse is a truth And for the just and true consequence of Scripture I doe not deny and the covenant of life lying between God and Christ for all his Elect I doe not oppose and that the outward profession of the said Covenant hath differed under severall Periods I shall not deny and of the Scriptures speaking of the disanulling and abolishing the old Covenant and making a new is to be understood of the Period from Moses to Christ and not of that from Abraham to Moses This also in part I confesse but not the whole because that the abolishing of the old Covenant or Testament reached unto all that outward for me of worship under any type or shadow by which the people professed their faith and obedience to God So that the abolishing of types and shadows must reach so farre as any types and shadows were and that was unto Circumcision it selfe unto Abrahams Period and beyond even to all those sacrifices in any part of the old Testament wherein God testified his pleasure unto his people in any darke and typicall way or they their faith and obedience to him by the same So that the opposition the Scripture holds forth between Covenant Covenant is between Testament and Testament with reference to the order and forme of profession thereof But I leave this as little concerning the matter in hand and come to that which follows And the first to any purpose is layd downe thus That children are capable of the Spirit of God and of the grace of the Covenant Obj. and whatsoever men of yeares are capable of though not wrought in the same way and by the same meanes yet the same things and by the same Spirit so farre as is necessary to union with Christ and justification to life thereby else children were not elected or raised up againe in their bodies and be saved nor yet the judgement we can have of men of yeares be infallible but we may be mistaken as in the case of Simon Magus and others in the like nature In answer to this Ans let it be in the first place considered what may be here meant by children because the Scriptures speake of children in a severall respect If such children as the Scriptures call so through weaknesse in the faith as Mar. 18.6 1 Joh. 2.12 13. 1 Cor. 3.1 Heb. 5.13 Now if such children as these then I confesse that such are capable of the Spirit of God and so of the rest as aforesaid But if by children be meant of infants then we are to consider what is meant by capablenesse of the Spirit the grace of the Covenant and the rest If capable of the Spirit so as opposed to the power of the Spirit to worke upon them so is a stone as well as a man as Mat. 3.9 But if capable to comply with the Spirit in hearing receiving and beleeving the Spirits testimony and so of Regeneration faith and repentance c. This I shall deny untill some proofe be produced from the Word of God for