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A52051 A sermon of the baptizing of infants preached in the Abbey-Church at Westminster at the morning lecture, appointed by the honorable House of Commons / by Stephen Marshall ... Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655. 1644 (1644) Wing M774; ESTC R876 44,378 66

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A SERMON OF THE BAPTIZING of INFANTS PREACHED In the Abbey-Church at Westminster at the Morning Lecture appointed by the Honorable House of Commons By STEPHEN MARSHALL B D. Minister of the Gospel at Finchingfield in Essex ACT. 2.39 The Promise is unto you and to your Children and to all that are afarre off even as many as the Lord our God shall call ROM. 11.16 If the roote bee holy so are the branches 1 COR. 7.14 The unbeleeving husband is sanctifyed by the wife and the unbeleeving wife is sanctifyed by the husband else were your children unclean but now they are holy LONDON Printed by Richard Cotes for Stephen Bowtell at the signe of the Bible in Popes-head-Alley 1644. TO The Reverend and Learned the Prolocutor Assessors the Commissioners of the Church of Scotland and the rest of the Assembly of Divines now sitting in Westminster SOme few of us who are of your number freely bestowing our Labours in the Abbey-Church every Morning we agreed among our selves to instruct our Auditors in all the necessary Truths of that Doctrine which is according to godlinesse One taking for his Subject the Articles of Faith Another the Ten Commandements Another the Lords Prayer c. My lot of late hath been to handle the Doctrine of the Sacraments and comming in order to this Point I indevoured to cleere it as fully as I could in one Sermon and was thereby compelled to borrow a little more time then is usually allotted to that Exercise Importunity of many Friends who conceived it might give some light to that which is now made a great controversy and might through the blessing of God be a meanes to reclaime some deceived Soules or prevent the deceiving of others hath brought it thus into Publick view And although I know my selfe the unworthyest and unablest of many yet because I am assured that it is Gods Truth which I have Preached and which hee will blesse I was the more easily overcome by that importunity if it may contribute any thing to the helping forward of the great Work now under your hands and may ease you of any part of that Labour which so exceedingly presseth you therein I shall rejoyce And in the opportunity I have by Dedicating this to your Names to testify that I am Your unworthy Brother and Servant in the Lords Work STEPHEN MARSHALL A SERMON OF THE BAPTIZING of INFANTS 1 PET. 3.21 The like figure whereunto even Baptisme doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ IN this Morning Lecture I have formerly in my course out of severall Scriptures handled the Doctrine of the Sacraments in Generall and then proceeded to speake of the Sacraments of the Old Testament and therein their number their agreement and disagreement with those of the New Testament And now lately have begun to open the Sacraments of the New Testament The first of them is now in hand And I have already out of this Text made foure or five Sermons concerning the nature and use of the Sacrament of Baptisme wherein I have cleared unto you First Who was the Authour and Institutour of it Secondly Who is to bee the 〈◊〉 of it Thirdly The Essence of it the matter and forme of it both the res terrena and the res Coelestis the earthly and the spirituall part and now Fourthly it remaines that I treat of the subject of it or the persons who are to be Baptized and they are of two sorts either grown men who being instructed in the Doctrine of Christ and professing their Faith in him and their willingnes and readines to live according to his will and do desire to bee partakers of this blessed Sacrament These whether Jews or Gentiles Male or Female bond or free are to bee admitted to the participation of this Ordinance of the Baptizing of such as these there is no question The other sort are Infants of whose right to this Sacrament I shall by Gods assistance treate this day And concerning these there are two sorts of questions First Whether any Infants at all are to bee Baptized Secondly Supposing some have right to it yet it 's greatly disputed whose Infants may bee Baptized viz. Whether the Infants of Excommunicate persons of Hereticks of Profane men of meerly civilly Righteous whether Bastards whether the Infants of Heathens who are to bee brought up by Christians and whether these may not be Baptized with some caution used thereby to make distinction betwixt the pure and the impure I shall for the present baulk all these latter questions and handle only the former viz. 〈◊〉 any at all are to bee Baptized or as the Question uses to bee stated Whether the Infants of beleeving Parents the Infants of Saints are to be admitted to the Holy Sacrament And here also ariseth another question Who are to bee meant by Beleevers and Saints whether only such as have the inward vertue of faith and holinesse who are really beleevers and sanctifyed ones or whether by Beleevers and Saints may be meant such a faith and sanctity as is outwardly professed although possibly the inward grace it selfe which only God can judge of bee altogether wanting Concerning which question although for my owne part I beleeve wee are to understand it of that which man may judge of and that God hath not made that the condition of his servants applying his Ordinances which can be infallibly known to none but himselfe and that therefore the profession of Faith and holinesse is sufficient to make men passe for Beleevers and Saints in the Churches judgement yet I shall at the present baulk the handling of this also and will take it in the surest sense in the Apostles sense what the Apostle means by Beleevers and Saints when he writes unto the Churches that I will take to bee the state of the Question if by Beleevers and Saints the Apostle meane visible professors of faith and holinesse then the Question is whether their Infants are to bee baptized if the Apostle by beleevers and Saints mean such onely as are inwardly holy inwardly beleevers then the question is whether their Infants are to be Baptized in a word whether the Infants of such as were or might have been stiled beleevers and Saints in the Apostles daies and writings are to be admitted to the Sacrament of Baptisme This priviledge of the baptizing of such Infants the Christian Church hath been in possession of for the space of fifteen hundred yeers and upwards as is manifest out of most of the Records that we have of antiquity both in the Greek and Latine Church which I the rather mention in the beginning because many of the Anabaptists blush not to say that the Antients especially the Greek Church rejected it for many hundred yeers Justine Martyr who lived about Anno 150 in a Treatise which goes under his name Question 56. disputes