when they are but placed in circumstances that will bring them to do it actually in the Issue And thus the Children of the Rohathites of a month old were numbred with their fathers as with them keeping the charge of the Sanctuary when they were but in a way of being trained up to it Numb 3.28 And in this respect perhaps it was that our Saviour spake of some little Children as believing in him of which I shall say more afterwards Mat. 18.6 And for the same reason it may be little Children were said to enter into Covenant with God when their Parents did so Deut. 29.11 12. To conclude this enquiry Most certain it is that Infants were then received into the Church and were a part of it as all acknowledge and it must be in the respects which I have mentioned that they were so unless any more likely can be named which I cannot imagine For other Infants of the Heathen which were not under these circumstances were not reputed Church Members nor were in any immediate capacity of the Church initiating Ordinance The next thing after this which would be enquired into is whether the visible Church membership of the Infants of believing Parents was discontinued or terminated by the taking place of the Gospel ministration or by any new Church state under it And I doubt not to say that there are many things which will determine this question against you in the Negative I will begin with that in Rom. 11.29 where it 's said for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance These words relating to the calling of such Jews who as concerning the Gospel were then Enemies for the sake of the believing Gentiles and yet beloved for the fathers sake that which I chiefly note from them is That the calling of God or his antient way or method of bringing the Jews to be his people is not now under the Gospel recalled no more than his donation or gift conferred on Abraham and his Seed is when he promised to be their God on the terms he did but both are still continued without any repentance in God The way into the Church is as open the terms of admission as touching the general nature of them as easie and the means of procuring it vouchsafed by God as sufficient now as ever they were God hath not repented of any favour or grace that was antiently granted to the Jews whether old or young in reference to their being of his Church and People And in that very prediction in Isa 59.20 21. which the Apostle here in Rom. 11.26 27. recites touching the calling of the Jews in Gospel times it is foretold that the same way of propagating Church-members and the true Religion which God used in old Testament times by Parents training up their seed in the true Religion and by that means transmitting it from Generation to Generation shall continue in the Church to the end of the World For it is there said As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever And accordingly we find in point of event that except in the first planting of Christian Churches in an extraordinary way by extraordinary means the ordinary way of propagating the Christian profession and professors from age to age hath been the very same with that which was used by Gods appointment by the Jews of old which was by receiving their Infant Children into the Church and so educating them in the true Religion professed by the grown members of the Church For further light in this matter let us consider what doctrine our Saviour taught and what his Apostles after him in relation to it Our Saviour saith Suffer the little Children to come to me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God Mark 10.14 Which words for of such is the Kingdom of God are the reason here given by our Saviour why little Children should be suffered and not forbidden to be brought to him Which shews that when he says of such is the Kingdom of God he meant it of such little Children properly as those were which were brought to him and not of men like little Children in humility innocency or docility as you would have it For if we should understand it in your sense then that which our Saviour gives here for a reason seems to be no reason For what consequence is there in this or how would it follow thaâ— because the Kingdom of God is of other persons like little Children in other things but altogether unlike them in what was the matter of exception against their being brought to Christ which was their minority that therefore little Children properly meant ought to be suffered and not forbidden to be brought to Christ And if it be meant of little Children properly then our Saviour in these words asserts such little Children to be of the Church whether you understand by Kingdom of God Heaven it self or the Church on Earth For none are of the Kingdom of Heaven above who are not first of the Church on Earth for it is his Body the Church only that Christ is thus the Saviour of But if this Text were to be understood in your sense yet it would prove that for which I alledg it by parity of reason For if that which makes adult persons like little Children in that for which they are propounded as a pattern will qualifie them for the Kingdom of God then it must needs qualifie the Children themselves for it If you say that this way of arguing as well proves Doves Lambs and Sheep qualified to be of the Kingdom of God as little Children because they in some respects are set for patterns unto men and good men upon account of resembling them in some respects are called by their names I answer it follows not because these Creatures have not rational natures as Children have and therefore are not capable of spiritual benefits as Children are Nor were ever constituted Church-members heretofore as little Children have been By reason of which difference it will not follow that the one are not Church-members because the other are not though both are propounded as patterns in some respect of that which will qualifie rational Creatures for Church-membership So that take it which way you will the argument from the Text for Infants Church-membership is far stranger than any thing which can be offered against it Again in Luke 9.48 Our Saviour speaking of a little Child which he had set by him saith Whosoever shall receive this Child in my name receiveth me Here you have no room to pretend it meant of men qualified like Children For it is not said whosoever shall receive such as this Child in my name but
endeavoured to be put For this Doctrine of false Teachers was no further a yoke or burden than as it referred to the thing thereby urged to be practised The yoke or burden which St. Peter a Jew here saith neither they nor their fathers were able to bear was the pain they underwent in being Circumcised and the costly Sacrifices and other external burdensome observances which by the Law of Moses was laid upon them and this really or Circumcision which was a part of it was the yoke or burden which the false Teachers would now have imposed upon the believing Gentiles and their Children as necessary to Salvation And this was that which St. Paul also called the yoke of bondage wherewith he would not have the Believers intangled again Gal. 5.1 Which did not consist only in doctrine for he presently by an instance shews what he meant by it and wherein it did consist saying ver 2. Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing And the like he had done before Chap. 4.9 How turn ye again to the weak and beggerly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage instancing wherein in the next words ye observe days and months and years This yoke of bondage then we see did consist in more than meerly doctrine The neck of the Disciples must needs be the neck of all those who were to have born the yoke according to the Law of Moses if they had been obliged by it as the false Teachers pretended they were and such were Children of eight days old who among the rest were to have been brought under that yoke had the false Teachers prevailed To restrain then the sense of the word yoke to doctrine only when as the thing urged by that doctrine was the yoke which the Children were as much to bear as their Parents is as I said but a weak evasion I deny not but that adult persons are primarily meant and intended by Disciples in this place but that they only were so with exclusion of little Children is that which you will never be able to prove since it 's certain that the false Teachers did no less impose the burden of Circumcision upon the Children than upon the Parents Though it 's true they began with the adult and the dispute lay between the adult and them for they could not impose upon the Children but by procuring the Parents to accept of the imposition both for themselves and for their Children In that Infants are not in an immediate and the most proper capacity to learn of Christ makes you think I suppose that the Scripture should not call them Disciples But that need not make it incredible to you when you consider what I have already shewed and need not here repeat How that little Children in Scripture account are esteemed to be or to do this or that in a religious respect when yet they are but first put into a way or but brought near a proper capacity of being or doing it when they are but placed in such circumstances as will issue there and which makes it visible to men that they will do so How else should little Children be stiled Believers and be said to do several other things every whit as remote from their capacity in the properest sense as their learning of Christ is I could shew I think by many instances in Scripture that things are said to be or to be done when they are but visible in their foundation or cause Thus to give you one instance our Saviour said of the family of Zacheus This day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also is the son of Abraham Lu. 19.9 The name of the effect is given to the visible cause Salvation is said then to be come to the family of Zacheus because he himself being become a Son of Abraham would in all probability be a means of bringing his Houshold to be so too Besides in Scripture account as are the Parents so are their little Children reputed to be If the Parents are counted the seed of the blessed of the Lord so are their off-spring with them Isa 65.23 Psal 37.26 If they are called from the rest of the World into a near relation to God as his special or peculiar people or to be his Disciples which is but another name for the same thing Isa 8.16 so were and are their Children with them And in some sort they are accounted to do that in their somewhat remote religious Progenitors much more in their immediate Parents which they did And thus Levi paid tithes in Abraham Heb. 7.9 And when our Saviour said whoso should receive one of those little Children he spoke of in his name would receive himself it is intimated that in doing so they should receive such Child as specially related to him as Disciples are And to receive them in his name and to receive them as his Disciples seem to be two words signifying but the same thing as appears by comparing Mark 9.41 with Mat. 10.42 Where both express the same thing in different phrases That which one calls a giving to one a Cup of water in Christs name because he belongs to Christ the other calls a giving it to one in the name of a Disciple And to receive little Children into the Church of Christ which is one way of receiving them in his name which is his Family is to receive them as Disciples or Scholars into his School as designed by him there to learn his Doctrine which may well give them the denomination of his Disciples And the account which I have now given why little Children are called Disciples may serve as reasons also why they are said to believe in Christ Having now heard what doctrine our Saviour himself and his Apostles after him have taught concerning the little Children of believing Parents and in what visible state they stand in relation to Christ and to his Church I think you will find little room left for you so much as but once to imagine that the Gospel when it took place put a period to the visible Church-membership of Infants Let us now consider from what hath been said in what capacity such Infants stand in reference to Baptism And can any man that doth consider them forbid water that these should not be baptized If such Infants are as much of the Church and as much Abrahams spiritual Seed as ever Infants in the old Testament Church were then they can be no more uncapable than they were of a solemn admission into the Church by the Ordinance of initiation for the time being as Baptism is now as Circumcision was then That which qualifies any for visible Church-membership certainly qualifies them for Baptism All were baptized into one body that were of it 1 Cor. 12.13 And such Infants can be no less capable of the spiritual ends of Baptism now than they were of the spiritual ends of Circumcision then
IMPRIMATUR 18 March 1675 6. Rmo D no Arch po Cant. Ã Sacris domesticis Geo. Hooper A Serious and Friendly ADDRESS TO THE Non-Conformists Beginning with the Anabaptists OR AN ADDITION TO THE Perswasive to Peace and Vnity By W. A. Luke 22.32 When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren LONDON Printed by J. M. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St Pauls Church-Yard MDCLXXVI THE PREFACE THE design of the following Address is to perswade to the Re-uniting of a divided Church And the unity of the Church is that which our Lord and Saviour earnestly and with reiterated Petitions prayed for to his Father and which his Apostles after him did with the most pathetical expressions they could well take unto themselves perswade the Christians to maintain By which we may perceive That the success of Christs design to be carried on by the Gospel does very much depend upon this Vnion which was the reason why the Heart of Christ and of his Apostles were so much set upon it And if so Then Divisions Sidings Factions and Disaffections in the Church and separation of one part of it from another must needs tend to frustrate and disappoint our Saviour in his design of Grace and to deprive the Church where these take place of the benefit and comfort in great part which he intended them in recommending the Christian Religion to them And then it will follow also That those who are most of the mind spirit and temper of our Saviour and his Apostles are and will be most tender lest they should make any breach in the Church or disturb the Peace of it and most careful to do what in them lies to repair breaches when made But contrariwise that those who are most venturous in making breaches upon pretences that will not abide an impartial tryal and least careful to close up those which are made are to that degree that they are so devoid of a Christ-like frame of mind and temper of spirit All which looks most unpleasantly upon so many as will not do all that they can do to prevent the farther growth of Schism and to heal the Churches wounds already made by it Considering all which and the deplorable state and condition of the Church in this Nation by reason of Schism and what men suffer and are like to suffer thereby in their religious interest I cannot imagine wherein or by what good men can better approve themselves to Christ in any one thing and more answer the Joy of his heart nor better serve their Generation than by endeavouring heartily according to the capacity they are in and the opportunity they have to promote the re-uniting of the divided parts of the Church of God in this Nation And if by endeavours of this nature any think I have acted more than comes to my share in this Address or otherwise it hath been out of the abundance of my affection to so good and necessary a work which will easily obtain pardon from those that are for peace I cannot say but that many attempts of this Nature have been made by others and endeavours used to this end But the reason why so little comes of it is because those who are the Aggressors or many of them would needs make themselves the Center of Vnion and Standard of Communion But how unreasonable it is to expect that an union should be brought to pass upon such terms or to think it fit that our breaches should lie open till it can is easie to apprehend For when will all Presbyterians think you be perswaded to turn Anabaptists or Independents or Independents to turn Anabaptists or Anabaptists to turn Independents or both to turn Presbyterians Or if they should when will those of the way of the Church of England fall in with them So that there seems a necessity of one of these two things either for all the subdivided parts of the Agressors to Re-unite themselves again to the Church of England from which they unduly rent themselves Or else to perpetuate our various Schisms until we have made our selves thereby a prey to the common Adversary And whoever are of the mind to put things on this issue and to run that hazard rather than to come to such terms of accommodation as are not sinful though otherwise not altogether such as they could wish will certainly shew themselves to be persons of but private selfish spirits regarding more their own personal satisfaction and private conveniency than the publick benefit of the Church in general a temper very unworthy a Christian and far from a laying down the life for the brethren It was the true Mother who was for yielding to her Competitrix rather than the Child should be divided Besides by continuing a Schism upon such terms which will not amount to any sufficient or just cause they make themselves accountable for all the dreadful effects of it Since then there is no probability that the Aggressors in their subdivisions will ever settle or unite upon any one of their narrow foundations it will I doubt not be much more becoming them as Christians for them all to reconcile themselves to the Church of England rather than to perpetuate such a complex Schism as we see hath cast both Church and Nation into a Convulsion and threatens its final ruin Do you or can you think that there is at this day after all tryals made any men upon Earth better Christians than many of those who have been bred in the Church of England since the Reformation from Popery and who have lived and died in her Communion I can hardly think that any sober intelligent person will venture to say there is And if not what is the matter then if nothing but the being very good Christians be your design why rather than to make a Schism that will not satisfie you for the attaining to it which hath been so successful for the effecting this end in so many other worthy persons as have left us an example of holy living worthy our imitation Why the matter as I apprehend it stands thus Those whose minds had been influenced and affected with the different principles of the old Non Conformists Brownists and Anabaptists before our late unhappy Civil Wars brake out took the opportunity which it gave them to begin a work of reformation in this Nation as they Notioned it to be And although they all still agreed with the Church of England in doctrines of faith and a holy life and in those doctrines wherein it opposeth the Church of Rome yea and in the substance of Divine worship also Yet they all opposed the Church of England in the external form of worship and in her order and Government But when they had done so they could not agree among themselves what form of worship and Government in opposition to all other is indeed of Divine Right but therein sharply opposed one another So that this so called Reformation produced more divisions and
sought honour one of another and not the honour that comes from God only John 5.44 I the rather mention these things to you because I know in part how strong a temptation of this nature is and how hard to be overcome But let it be considered that it is not counted a disparagement to any man that he is not infallible when as it is truly dishonourable for any to carry it as confidently as if he were when almost all knowing and good men in the World are of another mind It is in the Judgment of the wisest truly commendable and praise-worthy for a man to acknowledge and retract his error when he is convinced of it If this should not be admitted what place is left for men to grow in knowledge or to perfect that which is lacking in their repentance which is not done without a change of mind There are few men that arrive at any great wisdom but have found occasion to alter their opinion in many things THere is another principle of separation besides this of Infant Baptism which is common both to you and those of the Congregational way and though you differ in the former yet in this you are one This principle of separation consists in an opinion that none are to be held Communion with in Church-fellowship who are not in the Judgment of the Church savingly called and savingly sanctified which you and they call a Judgment of Charity or of discretion This is an opinion and the practising upon it a thing plainly contradicted by the testimony of the Scriptures both in the old Testament and the new This I have shewed already in this discourse And to what I have already said I shall add one or two things more The one is that herein you and they take upon you to judge in matters wherein you neither are nor can be competent Judges He that judgeth a man to have saving Grace or not to have it must pass a Judgment of what is in the heart and not of his outward actions only And this is the Prerogative of God only who as the Scripture saith only knows the hearts of the Children of men 1 Kings 8.39 and therefore may not be usurped by men It 's true indeed we may and must judge the best of men with a Judgment of Charity so far as there is any ground to hope well of them in reference to their state Godward but we must not take upon us to judge in the Negative against men in the worse sense that is that they have no saving Grace or which is the same that they are in a damnable condition except they have those black Characters on them for which the Scripture expresly excludes them from having any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ such as are enumerated in 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Gal. 5.19 20 21. We may judge of mens declared principles and actions in order to their reception to or rejection or at least suspension from the Communion of the Church when we may not judge of their state Godward A man may be so scandalous as for which to be deprived of Communion with the Church when yet we may not judge that man to have no Grace If any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed Yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother 2 Thes 3.14 15. The reason of all which I have signified already which is because we are incompetent Judges in this at least unless they are monstrously wicked persons The parting difference between the lowest degree of saving grace and that which is but common grace is so little and to the wisest of men so undiscernable that it is impossible but that they will be in great danger of judging them to have no saving grace that have who sit in Judgment upon that matter Yea and of depriving them also of those Church priviledges which according to your own tenent they have a right to having saving grace And thus in going about to weed out the tares you will root up the wheat also contrary to the mind of our Master Mat. 13.29 When our Saviour saith judge not that ye be not judged Mat. 7.1 as he would not have us severe in judging other mens words and actions or intentions so much less their state and standing before God Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Rom. 14.4 And again who art thou that judgest another Jam. 4.12 St. Paul saith of him that is a Jew not outwardly but inwardly and whose Circumcision is not outward in the flesh but inwardly in the heart That his praise or approbation is not of men but of God it is not of men decisively or determinately but of God only who knoweth the heart And if it be not of men then men should not attempt it or undertake it Rom. 2.28 29. That 's one thing Another which respects those of the Congregational way chiefly is this That their practice in pursuance of their principle aforesaid is contrary to the constant practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians We do not find that they refused any adult persons Communion with them in the Supper of the Lord who had been received into the Universal Church by Baptism but only in case of being orderly proceeded against in a way of Church censure for notorious scandalous offences but that such as were baptized continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and in breaking of bread and prayer Acts 2.41 42. And the Proselyte strangers of old who were Circumcised were by Gods appointment admitted to the same Church priviledges as the Jews were Exo. 12.49 Whereas those of the Congregational way though they baptize their Children yet refuse them Church Communion when they are grown if they have any strong suspicion that they have no saving grace although they never came under Church Censure for notorious scandalous offences Which is an Arbitrary and unscriptural way of proceeding and so much the worse in them who scruple some things because not commanded in Scripture though they be not forbidden So that their foresaid principle of separation in Conjunction with their practice of baptizing their Children renders them inconsistent in their way and their way contradictious in it self There are further great inconveniences to say no worse attending this practice of theirs First they have hereby prepared a way to Anabaptism and give occasion for many to take their way to that throughth eir Congregations as taking a degree towards it there For when some have perceived the interferings that are in their way in baptizing persons into the Universal Church and yet not to receive them into their particular Churches nor permitting them Communion with them therein when come to Age notwithstanding their profession of the Christian Religion but upon a new account of special grace they have been thereby drawn to think the