and not cover it he was to pay the owner for the losse of those his cattel which fell into it Parents having opened a pit of original corruption by the sinfulnesse of their nature if they labour not to cover it again as much as in them lies by using the ordinance God hath appointed for the same shall not the souls of their children if finally falling into that pit be heavily required at their hands Yea shall man be carelesse and cruel where God hath been so kind and careful in his instituting of Baptism Rom. 6. 3. That we may be Baptized into Jesus Christ his death as it followeth vers 6. that the body of sin may be destroyed To conclude Infants having the body of sin as well as adult persons and Baptism being appointed for the destruction thereof such parents are wanting to their own duty undervalue Gods ordinance and are cruel to the souls of the flesh of their body that deny Baptism unto Infants CHAP. XIV The Sixth Reason drawn from the constant Practice of Christian Churches in all Ages what credit is to be given to a Primitive Custome I Shall now be challenged by such who herein dissent in judgement from me for breach of promise starting from my own principles that having promised Reasons out of Scripture I flie now to Church-Practice and Ancient Tradition Wherefore to vindicate my self which is far more considerable the Truth herein I will first prove by Gods assistance by Reason out of Scripture that the Practice of the Catholique Church in all Places and at all Times especially in such matters wherein nothing appears contrary in Gods Word obligeth all conscientious Christians to the observation thereof And in the next Chapter we wil shew that the Baptizing of Infants hath been the uninterrupted Custome of the Church Be it premised that if we look on Customes simply in themselves we shall find them generally like the men of Sodom not ten good ones amongst the many thousands of them For what is Custome but the practice of most men time out of mind Now seeing most men yea all men by Nature Gen. 6. 5. have the imaginations of their hearts evil and that not for a day week or year but as the Text saith continually no wonder if Customes be commonly wicked Yea such errours and vices which at the first are soft and supple pliable to Reproof and sensible of Refutation contract an hardnesse by custome in continuance of time yea get an incrustation and such scales over them that they become impenetrable to Scripture and Reason brought against them And as Lahan deceived plain-dealing Jacob in his Marriage Gen. 29. 26. by pleading the custome of the Country so it is confessed that too many in all Ages in matters both of faith and fact have alledged Custome to Patronize their erroneous opinions and injurious practises But all this ought not to beget in us a neglect of such Customes which like Melchisedec are Heb. 7. 3. without father without mother without discent whose first original cannot be found out as practised in the Church time out of mind no remembrance or record extant to the contrary Now as Melchisedec in the same place is said to have neither beginning of dayes and what necessarily followeth thence nor end of life so it is but just and equal that such Ancient Customes in the Church which never had memorable Rise should never have Fall therein but that such which probably began at the first should constantly be continued till the last coming of our Saviour Here I plead not for such mis-shapen Customes which either run up all in length narrow and slender which though long in use never extended to any wideness in the Christian World or else so low and thick they only spread in bredth as many Popish Customes generally but not anciently used but never shot up to the just stature of Primitive Antiquity We only defend such wel-grown Customes which I call square ones the form of firmness and stability whose height and bredth are well proportioned put in ure by Christians at all times and in all places conceiving we can demonstrate it by reason from Scripture that such Customes must be presumed grounded on the word and will of God For proof whereof we produce Gods promise and Lo I am with you always unto the end of the world Amen Mat. 28. 20. Every operative word herein deserves our serious consideration I am with you unto the end I am A verb of the present joyned with words of the future tense to shew Gods Instantaneous assistance in every moment of extremity Psal 46. 1. God is our strength and refuge a very present help in trouble With you This cannot be meant only of the Disciples personally none of them living to the end of the world seeing John himself the surviver of the whole Jury died about the year of our Lord 102. It is therefore meant extensively of the Disciples as they were an immortal corporation With you Selves and successours persons and posterity As Christ John 17. 20. Did not pray for these alone so here he did not promise to these alone but to them also which should believe on him through their word These words To be with you import not only a promise of protecting them from all dangers but also of directing them in all doctrines necessary to be believed and practised for their salvation And this promise being made not so much to the particular persons as to the collective body of the Church is not so effectually performed to every individual Christian as to the Universal Church which amounteth from them all We confesse that notwithstanding the foresaid promise of protection and direction many good men have been guilty of great errours and have also fallen by Gods permission and just punishment of their sins into grievous dangers However Divine goodnesse so doubleth his Files about his Church in general that he will not suffer the same to be universally infected in all Ages with any one dangerous Errour And therefore a Church Custome in all times and places must be presumed conformable to the will of God because were it erroneous it were utterly inconsistent with that solemn promise which God hath passed to his Church to be with them unto the worlds end Such who on the contrary side are highly opinioned of their private Judgements and will not confide in the Universal Customes of the Church I know not whether therein they do shew more want of Charity in condemning so many Christians at once or plenty of pride in over-prizing their own judgements or store of profanenesse in doubting yea denying the performance of Gods promise so solemnly made of his protecting presence in the Church who surely will dispatch and destroy an errour therein before it grow up to be so long liv'd as to become a Custome What a high valuation S. Paul set on Church Customes appears by his expression 1 Cor. 11. 16. But if any man
reductively Circumcised It follows by whom it was administred this generally was the master of the family Abraham Circumcised Isaac Gen. 21. 4. As for Zipporahs Circumcising her sons Exod 4. 25. in a case of extremity and her husbands indisposition it was an irregular act not to be drawn into precedent but to be recounted amongst those which when performed are valid but ought not to be performed Come we now to the time When eighth day Here I will not search with some for a secret sanctity in the Number of eight as consisting of seven the Embleme of Perfection with the Addition of one that is Intirenesse lest our Curiosity reap what Gods wisdom never sowed therein The plain reason is this Before the eighth day a child was not conceived to be consolidated flesh but till then in the bloud of the mother And for the same cause when a bullock sheep or goat was brought forth Levit. 22. 27. Then it shall be seven dayes under the dam and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Quest. What became of the souls of such infants who died before the eighth day and so wanted Circumcision Answ They wanted not Circumcision For want is the absence of that which ought to be had now there was no necessity of because no command for their Circumcision before that time God the Grand Law-giver though tying others is not tyed himself to his Law But can and no doubt did give spiritual grace to many infants chiefly if children of believing Parents dying in their non-age of their non-age before the eighth day and incapacity of the sign of Circumcision He who Rom. 4. 17. calleth things which are not as if they were can call children which are but are not circumcised as if they were circumcised And although properly amongst men they were not named till the eighth day Luke 2. 21. Yet such infants nameless on earth might Phil. 4. 3. have their names writte◠in the book of life An instance we have hereof plain and pregnant to such who read the place without prejudice in Davids child 2 Sam. 12. 18. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died That is seventh day à nativitate from the birth thereof as Tremelius expoundeth it the more probably because no mention is made of any name imposed upon it This child besides the natural stain of original corruption had also the personal blemish of adulterous extraction And yet how confident David was of the final happinesse thereof appears by this expression vers 22. I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Let none strangle the life of so comfortable a passage with too narrow an interpretation thereof as if nothing therein were imported more then that David should die as well as his child This had been but cold comfort unto him and would never have invited him to such cheerfulness of spirit so freely to have refreshed himself Whose joy was founded on the comfortable assurance of his childs final happinesse and that one day they should both meet in Heaven together It remaineth that we treat of the punishment on the refusers of Circumcision expressed in these words Gen. 17. 14. That soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my covenant A threatning capable of three several sences 1. Severe That is by the sword of Ecclesiastical censures They shall be cut off from the visible congregation they shall most justly as the blind man was injuriously John 9. 33. be cast out of the Synagogue not to be restored unto it without their solemn and sincere repentance Parallel to S. Pauls expression Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even cut off that trouble you Though both phrases by some Divines be expounded in a sence 2. Severer That is the Magistrate shall cut them off with the sword of Justice and as Capital offenders they shall be put to Death In this sence God had last used the same words Gen. 9. 11. neither shall all flesh be cut off any more that is their lives shall no more be taken away by an universal destruction 3. Severest That is they shall be cut off from the congregation of the righteous by a final perdition of soul and body in Hell-fire These three interpretations do not crosse but crown one another being no contradiction unto but a gradation one above another The Refuser of Circumcision first shall be cut off by excommunication that not causing his amendment shall be cut off by the Magistrate and the pain and shame of temporal death not reclaiming him he shall be cut off with Eternal Damnation Quest Here is a heavy punishment indeed But who is the person on whom it is to be inflicted It was the Disciples question to our Saviour John 9. 2. Who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind But here the question will be who shall be punished this child or his parents seeing betwixt both Circumcision is neglected Answ First negatively surely not the child for it is said He hath broken my Covenant The Covenant may be said to be broken on him but not by him being purely passive therein Were the child sensible of the benefit by the having dammage by the loosing thereof and might it but borrow a tongue of the standers by never was Rachel more impatient for children then this child would be importunate for Circumcision Give me Circumcision or else I dye Now positively that the Penalty fals not on the child but on the parent plainly appears by Gods proceedings Exod. 4. 24. When he sought to kill Moses and not his children for being uncircumcised However if a child left uncircumcised by his Parents neglect afterwards arrive at mans estate and pertinaciously persist in the contempt of Circumcision he equally entitleth himself to the fault and is also liable to the punishment in my text Quest Seeing so sharp and severe the penalty how came that suspension of Circumcision full forty years in the wilderness Josh 5. 7 to be connived at God not only not punishing but for ought appears in Scripture not so much as reproving the same Answ In the first place I cannot approve the answer of S. Hierom and others affirming that Circumcision was given to difference and distinguish the Jews from other Nations and seeing no Nations were near them during their travel in the desolate wildernesse Circumcision was therefore purposely omitted For beside that sundry people and particularly the Amalekites dwelt in the desart Circumcision was principally ordained not to be a badge of distinction but a Seal of the consecration of the Jews unto God More probable therefore it is that because the Jews during that fourty years were alwayes though not actually moving disposed to move at a minutes warning when ever they received orders from the removing of the Pillar God the Lawgiver dispensed with them to defer Circumcision till they were fixed
half-Countrey-men the Jews yet soon after it decently expired leaving Baptism to succeed in the Church to all the essentials thereof amongst which this was one of main importance That as Children were admitted to Circumcision so they should also participate of Baptism Which by reasons out of Scripture God willing shall plainly appear CHAP. VIII What it is to reason out of the Scriptures and what credit is due to deductions from Gods word WE do freely confesse that there is neither expresse Precept nor Precedent in the New Testament for the Baptizing of Infants and yet are confident by necessary and undeniable consequence from Scripture it will be made appear to be founded thereon Let us here premise and explain a practice of the Apostle Paul as much conducible to our purpose He coming to Thessalonica Acts 17. 2. Reasoned with the Jews out of Scripture Three things herein are considerable First being to prove that this Jesus whom he preached was Christ he neither did nor could produce a positive text of Scripture wherein the same was affirmed syllabically or in so many very words Secondly in proof hereof he did not bring bare reason which would be but ineffectual especially to prove that which was meerly an article of Faith Thirdly in his disputing he made a wise composure of both joyning Scripture and reason together Scripture was the Well Reason was the Bucket S. Paul was the Drawer Pauls precedent ought to be followed by our practice herein Scriptura non scribitur otiosis The Scripture was not writ for the idle but the industrious Yea to what intent hath God bestowed reason upon us improved in some with Learning and Education together with the promise of his Spirit to conduct us into all necessary truth but that we should improve the same in the serious searching of the Scripture One main motive which induced Columbus to believe the other side of this Globe to be peopled with reasonable souls and invited him to undertake the discovery thereof was a firm apprehension and belief that God would not create so glorious a creature as the Sun to shine to Sea and Fishes alone but that surely some men did partake of the benefit thereof Is it probable that God would light the threefold lamp of reason learning and grace in mens souls for no other purpose or higher design but meerly that men should make use thereof in perusing of pamphlets and reading the works of humane writers chiefly in examining the word of God with such consequences which naturally may be extracted from the same Some things are in Scripture as grasse on the ground which on the surface thereof is apparent to every beholder other things are in Scripture as mines and minerals in the bowels thereof no lesse the product of the earth then the former though more industry must be used for the eduction thereof Circumcision is of the first sort obvious to a childe that can read the 17 th of Genesis But he must be a man of understanding which we all ought to be to whom Baptism is visible by deduction from Scripture See we here not only the usefulnesse and conveniency but even the absolute necessity of the profession of Ministers not only for the administration of Sacraments but for the clearing those necessary consequences from Scripture which at the first view are not apparent to every ordinary capacity S. Paul saith Rom. 12. 6. Let us prophesie according to the proportion of Faith Now I believe it will generally be granted that by Prophesie here is meant the preaching of the word Know then that the proportion of Faith consists not in one or some or many but is the result of all places of Scripture the universal Symmetrie of them all concerning such a point which is treated of Here then is the office of the Minister to present to his people in any matter necessary to be believed or practised the sence of the Old and New Testament This is sometimes not conspicuous in any one place as being the collective and constructive Analogie amounting from many particular places compared together Here I say the Ministers office is called upon in whom Reason is or ought to be cleared and strengthned by his learning to manifest and evidence to the people of his flock the rise and result of such deductions how naturally and necessarily they flow from Scripture This done such of his flock who of themselves could not see will see when shown who of themselves could not go will go when led enabled by Gods blessing on his help will both easily apprehend in themselves and communicate to such in their family such Scipture-consequences which their simplicity could never first have found out by themselves Then will it fare with such people as with the Samaritanes John 4. 42. who came to Christ at the womans invitation but believed on him not because of her saying but because they heard him themselves Unlearned people receive not such consequences for truths on the credit of the Learning and Religion of their Minister though by his direction first acquainted therewith but because that since they have been convinced in their own judgements and consciences of the truth thereof as no doubt the Thessalonians were when S. Paul as is aforesaid reasoned with them out of Scripture But a greater then Paul is here to avouch this practice even our Saviour himself Who being to confute the Sadduces who not only denied the resurrection of the dead but also that there was neither Angel nor Spirit Acts 23. 8. existing separate from the body so that at death the souls of men expired and were utterly extinguished In refutation of which errour our Saviour reasoned out of Scripture Mat. 22. 31. 32. But as touching the resurrection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living God is not the God of the dead that is he is not God to that which is annihilated and null in nature but that thing must have an absolute being in it self before it can be so related that God becomes a God unto it This text in it self seems at great distance to prove the Resurrection and never likely to meet the matter in controversie unlesse Reason intercede to joyn them both together The argumentation being thus framed and that to which God pronounceth himself a God hath a true real existence But God pronounceth himself God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob some hundreds of years after their death Therfore Abraham Isaac Jacob had stil a true and real existence And thus an argument which formerly was vertually in the text is by the assistance of Reason actually extracted thence and effectually applied to the preset purpose Say not Christ might have chose in the old Testament more pregnant and pertinent places then this by him cited to prove