appear so to the judgment of men and yet he calls them Branches in him so we may call Infants Disciples taught of God though we have no certainty of every ones particular Election but a generall ground from the promise for our charitable judgment of all In the eighth page you say J speak indiffinitely leaving out the word All J thought you had known that Indisinitum aequipelet Vniversali 2. You say Deut. 11. v. 1.2 The Lord spoke not outwardly to the Children of Israel What then cannot he therfore teach Infants inwardly inspiring them with the seeds of spiritual saving truth and life how came the Baptisi to leap for joy in his Mothers Womb at the salutation of Mary And though the Lord spoke not to the Children yet the Infants had a right to the token of the Covenant that then was And 3. Yee confess that Infants are made righteous by Jesus Christ and yet formerly you said that in the Command Baptize all Natiâ—ns such Infants that are made righteous by Jesus Christ are no more comprehended then Turks or infidels You are a sweet youth In the ninth page that which you call a fiction of my brain without one word in all the Bible to wit that Infants are inwardly and effectually taught or else there is no hope of their Salvation You confessed in the seventh page that to be inwardly and effectually taught was to be really and truly regenerated Then I prove what you say cannot be found in the Bible Except an Infant be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven John 3. v. 5. But except an Infant be taught effectually of God he cannot be born again for you confessed the new birth to be all one with this teaching page seventh Therfore except an Infant be effectually taught he cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven neither of Grace nor Glory for we must judge him so if he be in the outward Kingdome of Grace and he must be truly so a Child of God taught of God if he be either truly in grace here or glory hereafter If Christ blessed the Infants prayed for them and laid his hands on them then were they in some measure capable of his blessing and prayer and the benefit of the laying on of his hands which could no wise be without regeneration and being taught of God for without it no entry into Heaven neither of grace nor glory to any purpose Secondly I will shew it by a Golden Scripture Chain There is no Salvation but by Christ Act. 4. v. 12. but there is no coming to Christ but by the Fathers drawing John 6 v. 44. But there is no drawing of the Father without this teaching verse 45. Therfore without this teaching to Infants no Salvation Vertue is said to be copulative so is Grace so is this having one Link of the Chain you bring all to you Again in the ninth page you acknowledge from Matth. 19. v. 14. That they were Infants of whom Christ said the Kingdome of Heaven was This is more then ever I knew an Anabaptist confesse yet the more base you to say that such have no more right to the command of Baptisme then Turks Where in the tenth page you say there is eternall life for Infants without the knowledge of God in Christ it is as much as if you said Infants have eternal life without eternal life for Christ saith This knowledge is eternall life Secondly you say there that Infants that know not the right hand from the left cannot know Christ Cal. Instit l. 4.16 sect 19 â—â—r non Deus insantibus in presens exigua scintilla â—â—gaitionis 〈…〉 Aâ—â—b saith oâ— the Baptist Habuit intelligendi sâ—nsum qui exultâ—n 〈◊〉 habuit affectum J answer We are to believe the promises of God though we do not apprehend them by sense as you seemost of the Articles of our faith We beleive them all by faith though they be far above our sense The blind man that knew not white from black yet knew Christ to be the Messeas the Son of David willing to have mercy on him and able miraculously to cure him The young Prophets that knew not poyson from Pot-hearbs when they put a Goord in the Pot yet they knew much of the Mysteries of Heaven and they knew the very day when Elias should he taken from Earth to Heaven In the eleventh page you say they that know God will trust in him and indeed this saying is convertible for they that trust in God do know him but Infants trust in him therfore know him Psal â—2 And wheras you say there appears as much knowledge of God in a Turks Child as in a Christians it is false for they have not both the like promise and the profession of the Parents is a sufficient distinguishing note and especially the Text we are handling manifesteth more in our Children then in Turks That which you speak of Armenianisme I have answered already in answering to your seventh page Next you bring in Heb. 11. where it is said Without saith it is impossible to please God here I make an argument against your self All they that please God have saith but Infants please God therfore c. In the twelfth page you bring in James 2. v. 17. where he saith Faith without works is dead that place is meant of them that are of age in whom faith should appear not only in the budd and flowers of Profession but in the Fruit of good works yet this makes nothing against Children in whom faith may be in the seed and root If a Tree have neither leaves nor blossoms nor fruit in Spring Summer nor Harvest then it is dead and yet it may be a good Tree though nothing appear in the first of January The rest that you have in the twelfth page is nothing upon the matter but what you said and J have answered before In the thirteenth page you cry out of my miserable blindnesse and that J miserably abuse the Scriptures Isa 65.20 J am sure you are a miserable bold fellow and they are miserable blind that follow you for their Guide If you say that Infants should live a hundred years before they dye a naturall death you make the Scripture false for Infants do not live so long if you mean their Estate in glory that is likewise false for there they do not dye therfore my sense of the place is better agreeable both to Truth and Text which speaks both of death and life and in that sense many such Infants I baptize But for you Anabaptists you live so long old Disciples many of you till yee become more fit for the water to be drowned then to be dipped Yee come in impertinently with the Midwives sprinkling on the face Amphora caepit institui currente rota cur Vrseus exit In the fourteenth page my Master Ives brings in his Non sequitor and in that page you say Acts 8.37 God hath prescribed believing there to be the
they lived Therefore I have little hopes to do good upon you The Authors I name are for the Word and you like an erroneous fellow are agâ—inst it In the sixty foure page you come to your proof of believers Baptisme but who denies it you should have proved that they that were Baptized in their infancy must be Baptized againe when they can make you a consession with understanding and you have no shew for that but Acts 19. where the Disciples were not Baptized againe of Paul but only Paul tells how they had been Baptized of Iohn In the sixty fifth page You bring in Marke 16.16 which place is no rule to us for Baptisme for it speaks of saving faith and such as was accompanied with miracles but such faith we cannot now finde out in any the Text only shews who then were in the way of salvation John preached Baptisme unto Repentance Matth. 3.11 which after ward was to follow and so sutes Infants The Word We doth include and not exclude Infants Rom. 6.4 neither doth the confession of aged Mat. 3.6 hinder the Baptisme of Infants In the sixty sixt page You come to prove Dipping the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I sind sorty times in the four Gospels and twenty times in the Acts and above half a score of times in Pauls Epistles besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I finde twenty sixe times in the New Testament yet in all these places the word cannot appear once to signifie Dipping over Head and Eares But I confess I know not where Baptizo signifies Aspersio for the one is a Verbe and the other is a Noune but my man knows not a Verbe from a Noune yet I can shew where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put for aspersiones as Heb 9.10 compared with these same Verses in the same Chapter to wit 13 19 21. And all Grace is signified by sprinkling as Ezek. 36.25 c where sprinkling with cleane water signifies cleansing from all filthiness and a new heart and a new spirit and a putting of Gods Spirit in that new heart and spirit causing it to walke in and to keep and do all Gods Commandements and to save it from all future uncleaness what can the heart of man desire more then is here signified by the sprinkling of water and in Heb. 10.22 by sprinkling is meant the hearts through cleansing So Heb. 12.24 Christs blood is called the blood of sprinkling which is no less then 1 Ioh. 1.7 then a cleansing from all sin You cite for Christs Baptisme over head and eares Matth. 16 3. where we have nothing but a foule weather morning as your Pamphlet is full of dirt and mire and blustring weather the place is Matth. 3.16 where the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the water nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the water then Marke 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in is put for with or by Mat. 6.29.11.21 Chap. 16.27 Chap. 25.31 Ioh 1. v. 4.2 Cor. 13.4 Ephe. 3.13.2 Tim. 1.13 and so makes nothing to your purpose Next you say Iohn was Baptized in Aenon it is more then ever I read or heard any man of the world say before you that will say any thing yet ye cite for it Ioh. 2.23 where there is never a word of Johns Baptisme nor of no bodies else the place you meane is 3.23 where it is to be observed that Aenon is a Brook that you may step over with your foote therefore though it had much water for sprinkling it had not enough for dipping and when Philip and the Eunuch went down from the Chariot and upper ground to the water below them it is not said they went over head and eares without which they might come both from and out of the water In the old Testament the Hebrew for Dipping it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sometime signifieth dying with colours as Ezek. 23.15 and sometimes drowning as Exod. 15.4 This the Anabaptists will not like though it sets forth an outward conformity to the death and buriall of Christ more then dipping and yet they urge a necessity of dipping rather then sprinkling because of this outward conformity and sometimes I confess the Hebrew word doth signifie Dipping but not a whole Plunging of the thing dipt as Levit. 14.6 where the living Bird the Ceder Wood and the Scarlot were all of them dipt in the blood of one little Bird vvhich could not be by plunging all in so little a quantity of blood and in the 15. and 16. verses of the same Chapter the Priest was commanded to dip his right singer in the Oyle that vvas powred in the palm of his left hand which could be no more then the top of his finger and Iosh 3.13 it is said only the soles of the Priests feete vvere in the water vvhen they dipt in Jordan v. 15. and Ruth is said to dip her Bread in the Vinegar Ruth 2.14 though she put but a little in it and Jonathan 1 Sam. 14 is said to dip his Rod vvhen he put forth only the end of it into the Hony Comb. Therefore I conclude that neither the Hebrew vvord for dipping in the Old nor the Greeke in the New will signifie a plunging of the vvhole necessarily Now let unbiassed men judge how little all this makes for dipping Next ye bring in Socrates Historicus whom you call Scholasticus relating the Baptisme of Constantine the great I Answer it is a Question vvhether ever Constantine vvas Baptized at all As for most of your Church History Writers it is vvell known to the Learned how false and fabulous they are Carolus Sigonius lib. 5. de Occidentis Imperio ad An. 350 saith Coâ—stantinus Constants utrumne sacro fonte abluti vita excesserint parum compertum Your Catechumenists were either such as were Gentiles children vvho vvere to be taught before Baptisme as vve are to teach Blackemores before Baptisme yet this makes nothing against our Infants Baptisme or else your Catechumenists vvere of such as vvere grosely tainted with the error of the Novatians mistaking the sense of the Scripture Heb. 6.4 c. And that the Ancients did sprinkle in Baptism it is evident to me by their clinici which vvere they that vvere Baptized in their Beds neare the time of their death vvhich could not be by dipping but sprinkling Now that there vvere such clinici Cyprian shewes in his 76. Epistle vvritten ad Magnum this may be seen likewise in other ancient Fathers as Epiphanius and Basilius besides the Councels all cited by Vossius in his fift Thesis of the twelfth Disputation of Baptisme That Constantine and Theodosius and Nectarius and Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostome and the like deferred their Baptisme it vvas not because they vvere Anabaptists denying Infants Baptisme but because they vvere rather Novatians conceiting that if they sinned after Baptisme they could
time of baptizing it is false And they that gladly received the word Act. 2.41 they did not thrust out Infants that should be saved vers 47. from being added to the Church by Baptisme wherin God hath not prescribed any day as in Circumcision to the which Moses and the Israelites were then tyed though the Infants had a right to the token from their birth by vertue of the Covenant and if there had been no command at all yet the Covenant brought Infants to Circumcision Gen. 17. and still gives them a right to Baptisme And though Females were not circumcised yet I can give you many Scriptures where Women are reckoned amongst the Circumcised The word Circumcision includes all the people of Gods Children and Women as Rom. 3.30 Rom 4.8 9.12 Rom. 15.8 Gal. 3.8.9.12 Eph. 2.11 Tit. 1.10 And in Samaria both men and women were baptised Hitherto then it appears that I have not built neither Hay and Stubble but Truth as Gold and Pearls upon Isa 54. Now you say you will prove my Arguments to be Clouds without water and yet the first is such that all the Anabaptists in England cannot answer and so are the rest that follow let us then try an issue God saith Great shall the Childrens Peace be whom he teaches You say page sixteen like a base fellow that God makes but a bare promise but is not so good as his word and where the Text speaks of conferring of peace you speak of preaching of peace to Infants the rest that followes in that page you have it answered in the answer to the seventh page Wheras you say the Children of the flesh are not the Children of God Where the Apostle seems to speak so he means the flesh only But in your sense it is false for many Saints and holy Kings and Prophets came of Abraham his Children of the flesh and yet they were also the precious Children and we are to look upon all the Children of Gods people as such in their Infancy In the seventeenth page J perceive the Knavery of Hetiticks they will seem to slight that most which doth indeed pinch them hard so he calls my reason lighter then If God do not promise effectuall teaching to Children then the promise Isa 54. is much one with the threatning Isa 6. which of all the judgments of the world is one of the saddest Though teaching be a mercy as it is tendred to a people yet it proves a judgment as it is abused In the eighteenth page my place from John 6. v. 44 45. is so strong for me against you and your answer so short weak and unworthy that it doth not deserve a reply In the nineteenth place the Prophet Jeremias SHALL hath reference to our Gospel represent wherin that times now which before was to come you are an unworthy man therfore to pronounce a curse for that against me You fal foul upon my teaching at Giles Cripple gate and charge them all with folly that pay me a farthing for preaching J have many loving friends here and Sir if you had no more for your Cheese then J have of the Parish for preaching you would make but a poor Trade of it You indeed would have all the Ministers of England to beg or starve at your doors The mercies of the wicked are cruell yet the Apostle hath ordained that they that preach the Gospel should live by it our Saviour saith The labourer is worthy of his wages and they that labour in the word and doctrine are worthy of double honour Wheras you speak of going to America better men have gone and do go thither and are like to do God more service there among the Savages then you in London amongst the Anabaptists But how comes this railing against my preaching in London because Heb. 8. v. 11. it is said They shall not teach every man his Neighbour therfore J should not teach nay rather you should not teach who have no Gospel ordination but like Theeves and Robbers ye come not in at the door but as it were through Walls and over Hedges The Negative is not absolute but Comparative for it is men shall not be so much taught of men as of God and so it is unpertinently brought in against me you could hit better upon this distinction of Negatives in my house though you came untowardly to it for when our neighbour Heath told you that Paul was not sent to Baptize but to Preach you Answered he was not so much sent to to Baptize but before that you said a man should not Preach except he be sent but he may Baptize said you without Commission why then do you require a commission for Baptizing of Infants and why do you Preach and are not sent Let me aske you how can such as you go to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper sith the Lord hath forbid such to come to the Passover Exod. 12. v. 48. Where if he that circumcised not his child might not eat of the Passover then he that doth not Baptize his child must not eat of the Lords Supper And if Abraham must not suffer them to live with him that did not Circumcise their Infants Gen. 17. v 13. Then Christians if they have a lawfull power in their hands should not suffer Anabaptists to live with them because they refuse to Baptize their Infants And if the soule was cut off that was not Circumcised Gen. 17. v. 14. And God sought to kill Moses for the neglect of Circumcision Exod. 4. v. 24. how much more then damnably dangerous is the willfull neglect of Baptisme In the twentieth page I Said Psal 22. v. 9. that children trust in God Ye Answer hereto the words when I was are unnecssarily put in yet otherwise ye cannot make sense of it And ye say David in his infancy and so consequently Christ whom the Psalm chiefly concernes did not more hope in God from the mothers breast then unbelievers children and you say the whole Creation is subjected in hope then by you the hope of Christ of David and the children of Gods people is all one with the hope of a Snake or a Toad O base blalphemy Lastly Tremelius that knows the Originall better then you Translates the Hebrew word Confidere which is to trust and more then the ordinary hope of the creature And to the one and twentieth page I Answer the humility of children is Gods inspired Grace which goeth with his inward and effectuall teaching which is more then the innocency of Doves or wisdome of Serpents for Matth. 18. v. 4. they that are so humble are said to be the greatest in the Kingdome of heaven but it is not so with the Doves innocency or Serpents wisdom a man may have the Doves innocency to do no man wrong yet go to hell because he doth no man good Matt. 25. and a man may have the Serpents wisdome and be damned and want that wisdome as children do and be saved but this humility
1. 15. but if the one be a believer though the other be not yet the marriage is sanctified to the believer and lawfull to both so she is but sanctified as the Apostle speakes 1 Tim. 4. v. 4 5. As for Gal. 2.15 I do not so much mistake the place as I perceive ye donot understand it Antiochus Epiphanes did according to Dan. 8.24 destroy the Infants which were a part of the holy people ye reason wildly when you say they could not be destroyed with the holy people because they could not be said to have power vvith them vid. 1. Mac. 6. v. 1. To the fifty five page Repent is a command of the future Tence vvhich they that vvere Baptized then were to performe afterward as John Baptized to Repentance 2. The children are brought in in the Promise besides them that vvere charged to repent And why not the Infants of the cradle under Christs vvings ye believe your Infants are not under Gods protection What a mad Argument had this been of the Apostle to say ye have good reason to be Baptized for now it is a great deale worse vvith your children then it was before for before the Lord vvas their God vvherein all the precious Promises that may be are contained but now they have none before they had a token but none now therefore you have good hearting to be Baptized here had been fearfull mad motives to encourage them The Jews said Christs blood be upon us and ours this blood Peter so applied it that it melted the hearts of his Hearers now to comfort them againe he saith The Promis is made to you and your children This had beene but cold comfort to say you prayed that Christs blood might be on your Infants and now I tell you the Promise doth not belong to them By children Acts 2. Infants are understood first because the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most usually signifieth Infants Secondly the children are set down besides them that understood what he spake and besides them that were called or to be called a farre of and and if Infants be not in the Promise what becomes of them when they die or what are they better then than Infidells children And the Apostle speaks indefinitly of all leaving out no Infants To the fifty sixt page The Fathers were Baptized not in Moses name but in Gods name yet to Moses as their guide before them and as the water in Jordan was Sacramentall water only to them that were Baptized by Iohn and his Disciples in it but not to the Cattell that went thorow it so the Baptisme in the red Sea was Baptisme to the Fathers and not to the beasts though you make it alike to both To the fifty seven page Your contumelious reproaches against me are more fit for such a fellow as you to utter then me to answer I take a Prevaricator to be he that handles a good cause badly and then though I handle it badly yet ye are base to oppose a good cause and what you mocked I say it againe and againe That what was commanded by Christ was taught and practised by the Apostles it was practised for they were not like the Pharisees that taught one thing and did another And what was commanded was taught by them Matth. 28. else they should prove worse then the Centurions servants who obeied their Master Now Christ commanded that they should suffer little ones to come to him that they might fully every way have as much done to them as Baptisme comes to therefore the Apostles in their practise could never scruple Infants Baptisme ye talke like an Ass in bringing in the instance of an Ass It vvas necessary that that of the Ass should be once done to fulfill the Prophesie Zach. 9. ver 9. but this of Infants hath a reason of perpetuall standing for the continuance of it vvhich is because to such belongs the kingdome of heaven To the fifty eight page Some receiving of the Word doth not exclude Infants from Baptisme for by men and women males and females are understood taking in Infants in the number so our Saviour calls a new born child a man Ioh. 16. v. 21. Cornelius and Lydia were such as seared the true God and though Gentiles borne yet when their houses vvere Baptized the priviledges of a Proselite belonged to them and their Infants to be in Covenant with God and to have the token upon both and therefore whether there vvere Infants in their houses or not it matters not but upon that account if there had been a thousand they had all been Baptized In the fifty ninth page It is a foolish reason for you to say Infants in Stephans house could not administer to the Saints therefore they should not be Baptized Acts 16. 33. Luke speaks of the Jaylors house according to their capacitie when he speakes of all hearing and believing the Word he meanes such as were able and vvhen he speaks of Baptisme he means likewise such as are able to receive it which Infants are Lydia might have children for ought as you know and might have a husband then also for all you can bring to the contrary In the sixty first page I do instance women at the Lords Supper intending to deny no thing I have said but it is argumentum ad hominem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quisque may be where there is no woman therfore they do not prove women at the Lords Supper from 1 Cor. 11.28 In the fixty second page The Apostle Col. 2.11 12. to stop the mouthes of false Apostles that were for Circumcision saith We are Circumcised in Baptisme now if Baptisme did not reach Infants as well as Circumcision did then the loss in regard of Infants is more by the want of Circumcision then our gaine is by having of Baptisme and so the false Apostles might have said our losses are not fully made up by Baptisme and so Baptisme cannot give us satisfaction for our loss And where you say Infants Circumcision did not signifie the hearts Circumcision it is false for it was a token that the Lord was the Infants God which containeth all Gods Promises whereof this is one Deut. 29. I will Circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy children In the sixty third page You complaine that my Arguments have not water enough to sprinkle a child it is no matter if they be weighty though they be not watery I grant yours are watery enough to plunge over head and eares and you and all your Arguments like Ruben light as water as water put it in a round glass it is round put it in a square glass it is square put it in a green blew or yellow glass it s like the glass so you conform to the times some times Quaquers or Seekers Antinomians Arminians Socinians Anabaptists or what ye will These men whom I name page fifty three could do little good upon the obstinacy that were in the Times and Places where