the faith of Divine Scripture declares to us that there is one evenness of the Divine gift to all whether Infanrs or elder in age When Helisaeus upon the Infant son of the Shunamite widow which lay dead so laid himself when he prayed to God that head was applied to head face to face the members of Helisaeus spread over were joyned to each of the members of the little one and the feet to its feet Which thing if it be thought on according to the quality of our birth and body an Infant cannot be equalled to a person grown and come to full stature neither could he close and fit little members to greater But their Divine and Spiritual evenness is expressed that all men are even and equal when they are made By God and our age may have difference in increase of bodies according to the world not according to God unless if the grace also which is given to the baptized be given lesse or more according to the age of receivers where as the holy Spirit is equally given to all not by measure but out of tendernesse and fatherly indulgence For God as he accepts not a person so neither doth he accept of age sith he affordes himself alike to all with a ballanced equality for the obtaining of heavenly Grace And for what thou hast said the footstep of an Infant made in the first dayes of his birth is not clean because every one of us as yet is afraid to kiss him neither do we think this to be a hindrance to the giving of heavenly Grace for it is written all things are clean to the clean neither ought any one to be afraid to do that which God hath vouchsafed For although the Infant is yet new from the birth yet it is not so that one in giving grace and granting peace ought to be afraid to kiss him sith in the kiss of an Infant every one of us according to his religion ought to think of the very hands of God as yet fresh which we in some sort kiss in man now formed and newly born when we embrance that which God hath made For as for what was observed in Jewish carnal Circumcision the 8. day is a Sacrament foregoing in a shadow and in an image but is now compleat in the truth Christ being come For because the day in which the Lord should rise and quicken and give us Spiritual Circumcision was the 8. day that is the first after the Sabbath this 8. day that is the first after the Sabbath and the Lords day went before in an image which image ceased the truth after â—â—â—ing upon it and the Spiritual Circumcision being given us For which reason we think none ought to be hindred from obtaining the grace of Christ nor that the Spiritual Circumcision ought to be hindred by the carnal but that every man altogether is to be admitted to the grace of Christ sith Peter also speaks and sayes in the Acts of the Apostles The Lord hath said to me none is to be said to be common and unclean But if any thing might hinder men from the obtaining grace more grievous sins might hinder grown men and commen to full stature elder in birth But moreover if to most grievous offenders and those that sin much before God when after they believe remission of sins is given and no man is withheld from Baptism and from grace how much more ought not an Infant to be withheld who being new born hath sins no whit but that being born according to Adam carnally he drew on him in his first nativity the contagion of death of old who in this respect doth more easily come to receive remission of sins because not his own sias but anothers are forgiven him And therefore most dear brother this was our sentence in the Council that none by us ought to be prohibited from Baptism and the grace of God who is mercifult and kind and tender to all Which as it is to be observed and held concerning Infants themselves and newly born who in this respect do deserve more of our help and ' Divine mercy because in the first beginning their birth presently crying and weeping they do nothing else but pra We wish to thee most dear brother alwayes health For Mr. Richard Baxter at Kederminster Sir some of my neighbours conceived it would be their best way to resolve their doubts about Baptism to know what arguments you could bring for Infant-baptism and against their being baptized notwithstanding the pretended Baptism they had in Infancy Whereupon with my privity one came to you upon whose relating to me your answer I wrote to you and upon receipt of your letter to me think good to let you understand that I said not I utterly refused open dispute but that I affected it not it being fit for Schools and not common auditors entered into usually with animosities and eagernesse to obtain a supposed victory mannaged with heat and multitude of words with answers and replies not so delibrate as were requisite to settle any ones judgement they being misapprehended by Auditors who commonly take him to have the better who speaks the most ending usually in wrangling or something like it followed with misreports accompanied wâ—â—â— disorders and inconveniencies insomuch that except in case of betraying truth by declining a dispute I can hardly bring my self to yield to it And howsoever you conceive of my advantages you may if you will and perhaps do know that you have such advantages in your ready wit and speech and the favour and general acclamation to any thing that is said for the superstition of Infant-baptism as to bring things so to passe that the event shall be crying down truth and disgrace of my person Nor have your disparaging speeches of my writings without animadversions on them communicated to me or your carriage at or not long after the receipt of my letter encouraged me to hope for all candour from you in this matter For preaching sith it belongs to you to maintain the Divine institution of Infant-baptism I shall be willing to examine what you say when you have said what you think good for it if I may obtain a copy of your Sermon which you will own and if it satisfie me I shall confesse it if not in a Sermon in the same place or elsewhere I shall give a distinct and plain answer to it Foâ— writing which I like best I desire not to put you to any tedious or voluâ—â—nous way but in the most compendious way of syllogisms yea if it may â—â— that you put in one medium the strength of all you can Of the shoâ—â—â—ispatch you desire you may assure your self who are to be the opponent in â—â—â—oint my answer will be as short as your argument will permit and â—â—â—â—â—e you conttact it keeping to the point the more satisfactory it wil 〈◊〉 I am Yours in our Lord JOHN TOMBES Bewdley Sept. 10. 16 Tertullian l. de baptismo Laicis jus est baptizandi
the book of Gods judgements on Sabbath-breakers he is jealous lest it be from no good will to the doctrine of the morality of the Christian Sabbath as being against the scope of the book though the occasion shew it was onely to prove the uncertainty of relations that men may not rest on them as proofes of a truth But I perceive as Mr. B. is very prone to have hard thoughts of me so both he and Mr. M. seek advantage to create prejudice against me about this point of the Lords day which makes me more full in my clearing my self in this thing and in other things not so much regarding my own personal esteeme as desirous to prevent that indirect way of wounding the truth through my sides I would have no man adhere to my tenet because it 's mine nor would I have any to reject it because it is mine I know too much evil by my self yet not in the things in which I am accused at least not in that degree in which Mr. B. accuseth me Mr. Bs. telling me in print this manner of crimes not proved but imagined is no whit justified by the rules and examples he brings his ranking me with seducers I defy and know that I shall better be able to prove it against him then he against me SECT XVI The ground of my opposing infant-baptism is confirmed by Mr. B. himself PAge 205. He tells me all the Ministers and schollers that he can meete with that heard my disputes did think I had silly grounds to build my confidence in and though I boast much of my answers by writing he thinks my writings have little to be boasted of Answ. I have some experience of Ministers and Schollers and I sind few fit to judge of controversies and of those few not many willing to search impartially into a point that 's against the streame and likely to expose them to hard measure some that talk much study little nor is it a new thing to find some that wrangle in dispute for such a sense of a Scripture as when they are out of the heat of dispute they themselves expound otherwise The Ministers and Schollers at the dispute such as they were weigh but little with them that know them best My writings are not boasted of by me yet men equal to Mr. B. or any auditors of the dispute have said more of them then I am willing to speak of My imployment in this argument seemes to me to be part of my work God hath allotted me though I am known not to be idle in other work What Mr. B. calls fallacies passing from me will be proved verities My arguments from Mat. 28. 19. Marke 16. 15 16. are to be found in my Exercit. sect 15. Examen part 4. sect 1. to which Mr. Ms. replies are insufficient as I shall shew in my Review In the worship of God it was wont to be accounted a certain rule that Gods worship should be observed according to his appointment and no otherwise And so Protestant Divines argue from 1 Cor. 11. 28. selfe-examiners are appointed to eate Ergo no infants or younglings though young ones ate the Passeover Yea Mr. B himself page 221. If Christ never sent any but Ministers to baptize then no others may do it If there be no example of any but Ministers that have baptized though parenrs did circumcise then no others may do it For the Apostles established the Church according to Gods mind and the Scripture is a sufficient rule page 222. if there be no command or example in Scripture of any but Ministers administring the Lords Supper then no others may do it Page 342. If we have no warrant by word or example in all the New Testament since the solemne institution of baptisme Mat. 28. to admit any member into the Church without baptisme but both percept and example of admitting them by it then we must not admit any without it ordinarily I take his own medium mutatis mutandis and thence inferre If we have no warrant by word or example in all the New Testament since the solemne institution of baptisme Mat. 28. to admit any member into the Church by baptisme but believers by profession but both precept and constant example of admitting them by it then we must not admit any without it ordinarily I use his own words and texts But the Antecedent is evident John 4. 1. Acts 2. 38 41. and 8. 12 13 16 36 38. and 9. 18. and 10. 47 48. and 16. 15 33. and 18. 8. and 19. 3 4 5. Rom. 6. 3. c. the Consequent is undoubted to those that take the word for their rule If Mr. B. will stand to his own argument he must make good my arguing from Mat. 28. 19. Marke 16. 15 16. unlesse he have some such strange shift as Mr. Cotton puts in the mouth of Silvanus who personates himself in his book intitled The grounds and ends of baptisme in the Preface page 3. where he intimates that the urging against childrens baptism this main principle of purity and reformation to wit that no duty of Gods worship nor any ordinance of religion is to be administred in the Church but such as hath just warrant from the word of God is from Satan but from God when it is urged against the Prelatists and Papists so Mr. B. thinks his medium good against Socinians but not though it be the same for the Anabaptists He addes All your confident words shew me not the least ground for your conclusion no more then thus Scripture requireth faith to justification therefore none but believers are justified which is false yet like yours if I know what you would thence deduce Answ. He now I hope knowes what and how I deduce or rather how Mr. B. deduceth my conclusion from Mat. 28. 19. Marke 16. 15 16. not onely in my words but also his own though I had often long before deduced my argument in the places before quoted and elsewhere in my writings of the validity of which deduction I am the more confident because it is in Mr Bs. own words justly brought by me against himself If the Scripture requireth saith of all to justification then it is not false that none but believers are justified Yet infants may be justified by habitual faith or actual by operation in an extraordinary way But the Scripture requires profession of faith afore any be baptized ordinarily As for what may be done extraordinarily elsewhere I have expressed my self and have vindicated my self from the wrong inferences made thence Postscript sect 15. and elsewhere Page 206. The People of Kederminster did not heare from my mouth in the dispute Jam. 1. How little Anabaptists could say in the hardest point of baptisme for I used no such wordes nor any thing I said or omitted to say can infer it and when they have read my answer me thinks they should believe I could say more then I did say then and see the reason why no
was because I knew it would be likely to stirre up passion and settle prejudice in the people in which I find by that he hath printed chap. 1. 2. especially in the very beginning I was not mistaken and I hoped to bring the dispute to writing which is the best way to clear truth and I suspected as I had cause Mr. Borastons and the then Magistrates and those reputed godly persons devices and motions which were then by many conceived to be contrived for the Parsons endes the continuing his power and profits by keeping up that rite which ingratiates the profane and formal persons to him Whereunto that Mr. B. hath been subservient is the grief of many and might well befit Mr. B. to repent of When I saw I could not get Mr. Bs. arguments in writing I got what notes I could of the dispute from others writing or my own memory and knowing that vauntes were given out of Mr. Bs. victory I did as well as I could summe up his arguments and answer them Jan. 20. and after went to him upon his motion Jan. 25. to confer with him which was friendly on both sides yet that which I hoped and I conceived he promised that though he would not send me his arguments in writing which I again moved yet he would transcribe them for such as should come to him to be resolved in that point after sundry puttings off was not obtained But instead thereof in March the weeke afore I removed from Bewdley I met with the passage in his Epistle Dedicatory to the people of Kederminster to which I after opposed my Valedictory Oration in Bewdley chappel March 17. 1649. and printed the same in effect in my Antidote in May following Now Mr. B. alleadgeth he had reason for his not sending his arguments to me to keep me from erring they being not desired for my self but my people I remained very confident of my self that when I sent to him I heap'd so many untruths about matters of fact I knew that he durst not answer me lest the very naming my untruths might cause me to say he reproached or railed that his conference was with me in private because he thought my pride of spirit would not permit me to confesse truth openly that he wrote the passage in his Epistle to Kederminster out of zeale for God compassion to mens souls my opinion and preaching being like to do more hurt against the Church of God then drunkards and whoremongers and therefore he had cause to be bitter in his writing To all which speeches I reply He had reason to conceive I desired satisfaction for my self by my desiring his Animadversions and by my letter to him Sept. 10. If not yet to have given them in writing which he had as he saies before at Coventrey preached and were ready by him had been a neighbourly part to men that were his frequent hearers But his prejudice against my opinion and uncharitable conceit of my pride as heretofore Mr. M. and Mr. Ley interpreted my most equal motion in humility of spirit in the end of my Examen to be the challenge of a braving Goliath so now any opposing what 's determined by Synods and leading writers must be condemned as comming from pride are a sufficient reason not to gratify me but to do what he can against me and this must be counted zeale for God and his insolent bitternesse justifiable as being in pretence against a pernicious sin not yet proved but indeed against a truth discovering an error whereby the prime ordinance of Christianity is miserably corrupted He speaks of a fearful passion a feaver of passion I was in when I first read the passage in his Epistle against Anabaptists such as he would not be infor all my revenues if I had not a free vent for my spleen in pulpit and presse he doubts it might have spoiled me 'T is true when I first read it unexpectedly in Mr. Ds. house I was stirred in my spirit out of the sense of the wrong done to me and the truth by it and not meeting with the book before I wrote out the passage but that by word or carriage I shewed such passion as he speaks of I am certain is his tale-tellers addition whose conscience may perhaps one day tell him of his ill Offices in opposing truth and nourishing differences between me and Mr. B. Mr. B. hath a jerke at my Revenues by which he would have the world believe it is very great and such as were desirable for himself whereas his outward estate considering his being an unplundered or not much plundered single young man heir of a good estate in Land besides his sequestration is more likely to suffice his uses then my estate my uses though I blesse God it is better with me through the favour of some eminent persons sensible of my hard usuage then it would have been if the party opposite to me had prevailed and I could reasonably hope when for no other cause but the publishing of my Examen my remove from the Temple in Londen with my wife and children above a hundred miles in the middest of winter was necessitated Not content with this jerke about my revenewes page 202. He tells me in print of being Parson of Rosse Vicar of Lemster Preacher of Bewdley Master of the Hospital of Ledbury besides meanes of my own and yet complaining of want I and my family might be put to in my bookes and he addes You made so light of having no lesse then four market-townes to lie on your shoulders as if it were nothing and then sath Pious sober men think it his duty to say what he did To which I reply Mr. M. is taken for a pious sober man yet in his Defence of his sermon page 3. he accused me most deeply of a Socianian plot of questioning all conclusions inferr'd by consequence from scripture the injury of which I shewed in my Apology sect 11. yea his own words in his Defence pag. 205. You neither there nor here deny this argument from a consequence to be sufficient for practice of some things in the worship of God which are not expressely laid down in the N. T. refute this calumny yet to this day I never found that he did any thing to right me The like may I say of Mr. Robert Baillee of Glasgow in Scotland notwithstanding his false criminations before mentioned and my writing to him about them How Mr. Geree used me is shewed in my Apology sect 6. yet his Vindiciae vindiciarum was presently after published without any shew of remorse of conscience for what he did And now Mr. B. tells me pious and sober men advise him to say that which as he puts it down is false and exceeding injurious to me to wit that I had foure market-townes on my shoulders which every one will interpret to be 4. beneficial places under my charge together besides meanes of my own and yet complain in my bookes of
Tribe young or old men and women are gathered by the Apostles and other Preachers as Moses did gather together the Jewish Nation Exod. 19. Deut. 29. But saith Mr. B. 1. Hath he noi commanded to Disciple Nations I answer yes to make Disciples of all Nations by Preaching the Gospel to every Creature as it is Marke 16. 15. but no where by civil authority to gather a whole City Countrey or Tribe and to draw them into a National or City Covenant together old and young but to offer Christ and to baptize so many as are willing to embrace him 2. Saith Mr. B. Hath not the Father promised to give the Heathen or Nations for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal. 2. and that Nations shall serve him Answ. He hath and it is fulfilled but not in Mr. Bs. sense as if one whole Nation City Countrey or Tribe were gathered together in the manner Moses brought into Covenant all the Jewish Nation but as the Apostle speaks by ministring the Gospel Rom. 15. 16. the Gentiles that is believers among them are an offering to God glorifie God ver 9. praise him trust in him ver 11 12. so as it was foretold in Abraham all Nations should be blessed which is expounded Gal. 3. 7 8 9. Rom. 4. 17 18. believers of all other Nations as well as Jews 3. And that the Kingdoms of the world shall become the Kingdomes of the Lord and his Christ Ans. I reade those words Rev. 11. 15. but I find the time of fulfilling to be when the seventh Angel hath founded which some say is not till the world to come So Mr. Seager of the world to come part 1. sect 8. And this is not improbable from ver 18. and Revel 10. 6 7. The New Annot faith thus Antichrist is weakened and Christ hath begun to take the Kingdome out of his hand and shall have a visible Church like an Empire in all the known world and that to the end but that it is not yet 4. And do you not see it fulfilled before your eyes Are not Bewdley Kederminster c. and England till of late as fully Christs Disciple and so Church-members as the Jews were in Covenant with God and so Church-members Answ. If by it be meant the prophecies Psal. 2. 8. and 72. 11. I see them fulfilled though not in Mr. Bs. sense but the prophecie Revel 11. 15. I see not yet fulfilled I see at Bewdley Kederminster in England people who generally are called Christians but I do not see that all old and young are Disciples or Church-members or ought to be so accounted or that they were ever brought into such a Covenant as the Jews or-ought to be accounted Church-members by vertue of such a Covenant There is not a word in my writings to that effect Mr. B. chargeth me that I would not have Princes and Masters do what Abraham and Moses did in bringing the people of Israel into ' Covenant with God but I say that should they do so yet the Infants are not thereby to be accounted visible Church-members in a Christian Church The commission to gather the Christian Church was not given to the Emperour but Apostles The Apostles it is true were sent to proselyte them that were no Chuch-members and yet they were sent to proselyte or in the phrase of Scripture to Disciple the visible Church-members of the Jewish Church as well as the Gentiles What I said I still say that the different Church-call of the Jewish and Christian Churches is enough to shew a different Church-state and consequently the argument is not good from the Jewish Infants visible Church-membership to ours If Mr. Bs. judgement be not so commandable as to assent to what I say it is so much the lesse commendable The speech of Mr. Herle and the jest out of Matthiolus are misapplied When he saith why may we not write plainly against one anothers judgement by a loving consent He may know that it was my desire it should have been so that it was not so was from himself He that believes he hath shewed love in this his writing is very credulous For the rest if Mr. B. will have the patience and indifferency of judgement which is meet he may see an answer to his allegations about Gods mercy to Infants and the repeal of their visible Church-memship If he remain in his opinion which I much fear knowing him sowell as I do and I in mine we must leave our writings to others to judge especially to that day which shall declare every mans work being revealed in fire In the mean time sleighting his vain curse which is page 217. my prayer for him as my self is that we may do nothing against the truth but for the truth FINIS Cyprian and the other Collegues which in the Council were present to the number of 66. to brother Fidus greeting MOst dear brother we have read thy letters in which thou hast signified concerning one Victor a Presbyter that Therapius our Collegue in a time not ripe and with overmuch haste hath granted him peace before he had done full penance and satisfied the Lord God against whom he had offended Which thing hath enough moved us that he hath departed from the authority of our Decree that before the allowed and full time of fatisfaction and without the asking and privity of the common sort no infirmity urging nor necessity compelling peace should be granted to him But upon counsel weighed long with us it was enough to chide Therapius our Collegue in that he rashly did this and to have instructed him that for hereafter he do no such thing Yet we have not thought that the peace however once granted by a Priest of God should be taken away and for this cause we have permitted Victor to use the Communication granted to him But for what belongeth to the cause of Infants whom thou hast said should not be baptized within the second or third day in which they were born and that the law of antient Circumcision is to be considered so as that thou shouldest not think him that is born should be baptized and hallowed within the 8. day it seemed farre otherwise to all in our Council For unto this which thou thoughtest should be done none of us have agreed but all have rather judged that the mercy and grace of God is to be denied to none that are born of mankind For when the Lord in his Gospel saith The son of man came not to destroy mens souls but to save them as much as in us lies if it may be no soul is to be lost For what is wanting to him who is once formed in the wombe by the hand of God For to us and in our eyes they which are born do seem to receive growth according to the course of secular dayes but what ever things are made by God are perfected by the Majesty and work of God the Maker Lastly