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
at liberty 1 Cor. 7. 39. to Marry only in the Lord The Physitians observe that faults committed in the first concoction are seldom amended in the second such men had small hopes to better their condition by converting their wives after Marriage who before Marriage ran so desperate a hazard against Gods will in his word On the other side when mixt Marriages are continued according to Gods will they do sanctifie the profane person I mean when both parties at Marriage were originally Pagan and one of them afterwards converted to Christianity In such a case a separation is not to be made as was done Nehemiah 13. 30. when he cleansed the Jews from all their strange wives but the Christian may continue in wedlock with the Pagan without fear of infection and with a double comfort 1. That hereafter his or her Pagan partner probably may be made Christian verse 16. for what knowest thou O wife whether thou shalt save thy husband c. 2. That for the present the Pagan company is so sanctified unto him or her that all conjugal acts qua-conjugal may be performed betwixt them without the least suspition of sinfulnesse therein Come we now to the proof of the proposition else were your children unclean but now are they holy Not to speak of natural uncleannesse as alien from the purpose We will principally insist upon a threefold uncleanness mentioned in Scripture with a holinesse parallel thereunto 1. A Ceremonial uncleanness Common or unclean Act. 10. 14. Such uncleannesse was now quite grown out of fashion under the Gospel Ceremonial holiness whereby things were legally purified from pollution which holinesse was quite out of date with the Jews and never in date with the Gentiles when S. Paul wrote this Epistle Such as understand uncleanness or holiness in the Text in this low acception of the word under-shoot by much the true meaning thereof 2. A Spiritual uncleanness putting the person into Gods displeasure and a damnable condition Spiritual holinesse which mounteth a man into the favour of God and setleth him in the state of salvation Now we have over-shot the mark and are as much above the meaning of the Text. For no good parents can make their children thus holy many of them being humbled in Scripture as Eli and Samuel with a profane issue which lived and died impenitent It is an impudent slander wherewith the Rhemists in their notes on this text charge us to maintain that from these words we collect the children of pious parents to be so holy as that they need no Baptism Whereas indeed hence we gather such children to be so holy that they have a lawful right to Baptism Which hath brought us to the third and last acception of the word 3. Sacramental uncleanness rendering the â— person unfit to partake thereof and receive any benefit thereby Sacramental holiness which entitles a childe to a true right to participate of those Initiating Ordinances of God wherby he is made a member of the Church and admitted to the means of Salvation Now are we just level and even to the sence of the words and conceive our selves to have hit the mark or meaning thereof And thus it is expounded by all our Protestant Divines Musculus alone excepted who though otherwise a stiff Champion for Infants Baptism accounts the argument drawn from these words not cogent thereunto Quest If you call this Sacramental holiness why do you confine the effect thereof to Baptism alone why are not the children of pious parents admitted also on their parents account without any further examination to the Lords supper by the vertue of this which you terme Sacramental holinesse Answ It is the method of the Church not to intrust a member therein with this second Sacrament of confirmation until first he hath given testimony of his good improving of his first Sacrament of Initiation Besides a child while a child is more properly a part of the parent and may be said to trade under him Whereas when grown a man he sets up for himself and takes up a new stock on his own account This Sacramental holinesse therefore estates a childe in a real right to Baptism and only in a capability of the Lords Supper in due time except excluded thence by his own wilful unworthinesse Thus amongst the Jews every childe descended from Abraham might challenge Circumcision as due unto him but could not so lay claim to the Passeover of which some of his own intervening uncleannesse might make him uncapable except he was adjudged fit by such whose place was to search into peoples purity who were to partake of the same The main observation is this Such as are christianly extracted though but by the half bloud have a whole right to the Sacrament of Baptism Rom. 11. 16. If the Root be holy so are the Branches Say not in such mungrel matches the root is but half holy and therefore but semi-sanctity is as much as comes to the share of the branches thereof For herein the mercy of God is magnified that whereas he might have made the childe as the conclusion to follow what was worst in the premises of either Parent his mercy interpreteth all according to the better part thereof What result could be expected from the joyning of hot and cold but lukewarm What product from the blending of white and black but a motley What amounts from the mixture of light and darkness but twy-light but such is Gods goodness to pass over and take no notice of the Paganism in one parent whiles the child shall solely succeed to the purity in the other Now if Christian children by the half-bloud be holy how clear is those Infants title Religiously descended on both sides when Deus est in utroque parente Let none be so cruel as to question their title to the Sacrament IF any then ask what advantage then hath a Christian and what profit is there of pious parentage We answer much every way chiefly because extraction from them entitles to the Sacrament of Baptism They have also the benefit of their parents dry and wet prayers even before their conception petitioning to God importunately to make them be instruments not to People Hell but Plant Heaven When growing up capable to learn they have advantage of precepts Abraham will teach his children of good precedents whiles the children of wicked parents see daily what they should flie these see what they should follow the advantage of correction moderately and seasonably used All these are the sap which the root of holy parentage sends up into the branches thereof though all of them too often prove ineffectual and God who finally saveth not children for their parents sake but parents and children for Christs sake justly condemneth many children of good parents for neglecting all these precious advantages to salvation To conclude In the Low Countries the eldest son of a Commission Captain being born there whilest his father is in the service
seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God For the better understanding whereof know that the Corinthians were guilty of an innovation wherein they were an exception from the rule of the general practice in all Christian Churches The Innovation was this that their women used to pray uncovered the men covered that is as it is generally interpreted the women with short the men with long hair This ill fashion S. Paul confutes with several reasons drawn from the power of man over his wife appealing also to natural decencie therein And at last concludes all with this close But if any seem to be contentious we have no such Custome nor yet the Churches of God As if he had said could you Corinthians prescribe any custome that in Gods Churches grave and godly men and women have prayed as you do the former covered the latter uncovered Then should you alledge much in your own justification But I am confident on the contrary that no such custome can be produced and therefore your singularity is condemned by the joynt practice of all Gods Churches against them Object These words But if any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God Import only that Gods Churches have no custome to be contentious Christians ought to be of a quiet and peaceable mind and not to delight in vain janglings and dissentions Answ This cannot be the meaning of the words For was ever man so silly as to suppose and conceive that Gods Churches should be so irrational as to have a ridiculous custome of being contentious The Church is so far from having such custome which is a habit resulting from many acts that it condemneth each single act of causelesse contention as wicked and ungodly Yea no civilized estate though consisting of meer Pagans ever had any custome to be contentious or did ever delight in Barrettors More then must be meant herein that Gods Churches had never any such Custome for the two Sexes so to pray as the Corinthians did who herein ran counter to the Universal practice of Christianity the Apostle naming Churches in the Plural which are the single instruments as the whole Church is the consort all of them harmoniously agreeing in this custome save only the jarring Corinthians who are out of tune by themselves If a Church custome carried weight with it in S. Pauls time when amongst Christians it could not be above fourty years standing what a reverence is due to those customes which have continued in Gods Church above sixteen hundred years amongst which the Baptizing of Infants is a principal and if S. Pauls argument followed negatively women ought not pray uncovered because the Church hath no such custome the consequence is no lesse strong from the affirmative Children ought to be Baptized because the Church in all ages hath had such a Custome The proving whereof is the subject of the ensuing Chapter CHAP. XV. The Antiquity and generallity of Baptizing of Infants proved by the confession of Pelagius DIvers Learned and Godly Divines have undertaken and performed this task to prove the constant practice of Infants Baptism in the Primitive Church by the induction of the Authorities of several Fathers to that purpose And as the Angels in Jacobs Ladder Gen. 28. 12. Some ascended others descended upon it so in this scale of authorities some have deduced the practice downwards from Christs time to our dayes others by an inverted method have raised it upwards from our days to Christs time both by different motions meeting in the same point It is our hap like Ahimaaz to be sent last on the same errand the proof of this point And although far be such arrogance from me as to hope with him to come first to our journeys end and to do better then my betters have done before me yet thus far wil I follow the example of Ahimaaz 2 Sam. 18. 23. To run by the way of the plain Having to deal with people who generally are unlearned therefore the heaping of Quotations in unknown tongues were probable to offend and incense rather then to edifie and inform them we will imbrace the plainest way to make the Baptizing of Infants appear an Antient and general Church Custome unto them This will be proved by the confession of Pelagius when first we have given an account to the Reader what he was when and where he lived and what opinions he maintained He was a Britan by birth flourishing about the year of our Lord four hundred ten a man of great learning and greater parts had the same been sanctified unto him In the time of this Pelagius only three parts of the world were known Europe Asia and Africa all which were traced with the feet of Pelagius who though born in a corner of the World quickly quitted his native soyl and enriched himself with the experience of Church-practice in all parts In Europe where he was born in Britain and where he lived a long time in Rome it self gaining there great acquaintance with Ruffinus which may passe for the Epitome of the then Christian world Asia where in the Island of Rhodes or thereabouts he first scattered his dangerous Doctrine Afterwards he went to Hierusalem Africa where for some times he continued in Egypt working himself into the familiarity of the learned men therein Yea it is laid to the charge of Pelagius that to disperse his poysonous opinions with the more advantage saepius mutavit loca he often purposely changed the place of his habitation Amongst the many dangerous doctrines which Pelagius maintained we will insist on that alone the confutation whereof makes mainly for our present purpose He defended that Infants were conceived and born without original sin which came unto them when growing in years not from an inward principal of corruption but from their imitation of outward ill examples presented unto them S. Augustine undertakes his confutation and amongst many other solid Arguments to that purpose principally insisteth upon this that it was the custome of the Church in all ages to Baptize Infants which plainly proves that they were conceived in original sin For that which is clean needs not to be washed This Argument is often inculcated by S. Austin in several places as namely in his 150 Epistle unto Sixtus Likewise in his second book of Marriage and concupiscence in the eighteenth chapter Likewise in his four books to Bonifacius and every where in his six books against Julian one of Pelagius his schollers Likewise in his first book of imperfect work against the same chapter 48. 54. and 115. Lastly in his second book of imperfect work chapter 120. and 180. To spare making more instances the matter being notoriously known to any who have the least skill in the works of that worthy Father Now how easie had it been for Pelagius to answer this argument by denying childrens Baptism to be a Church custome had not his
conscience been convinced of the truth thereof How might he have rejoyned Original sin cannot be proved from the Baptizing of Infants which is but a modern custome an innovation in the Church of God What the Sodomites said of Lot Gen. 19. 9. This one fellow came in to sojourn and will he needs be a judg may be said of Infants Baptism This custome is new and novel lately crept into the Chuch as yet rather a sojourner then an inhabitant therein and must this regulate matters in a judicial way so that arguments must be deduced from the same Besides I have been a Traveller and have conversed with most Churches in Christendome being born in Britaine a little world by it self I have been in the great world abroad Jew and Gentile East and Western Churches have I observed Hierusalem that was and Rome which is so eminent for Religion are places wherein I am well acquainted This I know some Churches observe others neglect some use others slight the Baptising of Infants Nor can it be accounted a general custom of the Church which is but local and partial in a word both NEW and NARROW as neither coming down from Christ nor extended over all Christendome But Pelagius endeavoured to evade S. Austins argument by another device namely by pleading that Baptism was admitted to Infants not to wash away their Original sin but to bring them to the kingdome of heaven A fancy which he was the first and he and his the last to maintain it The result of all is this Seeing Pelagius was so great a schollar knowing full well how to manage a bad cause to its best advantage and seeing he was so great a Traveller who had not eat his bread all in one place but had roved up and down to know the customes of the Church and yet feeing by his silence urging nothing against it and by his shifting seeking otherwise to evade it he acknowledgeth the truth of Infants Baptism we conclude the same in his days received for an Ancient and Universal practice of the Church For why should he adventure the breaking of his bones or at leastwise the bruising of his flesh by leaping out of the window who hath a wide door set open unto him Why should he make so poor and pittiful so base and beggerly an escape to avoid S. Austins argument against him by forming a frivolous fancy of his own who had a ful free and fair passage at pleasure to go forth durst he but have denied the Baptizing of Infants to have been a general Church custome in his time To conclude this point the argument of Jephthah to the King of Ammon carrieth great weight therewith Judg. 11. 26. proving Israels right to the Land which they possest and the Ammonites pretended unto When Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns and in Aroer and her towns and in all the cities that be along by the coasâ—s of Aâ—â—on three hundred years why there fore did ye not recover them within that time In like manner may we urge it against the adversaries of childrens Baptism If the Ancient Church conceived the Baptizing of Infants an usurpation and incroachment injurious and unlawful why did not the Church of God in so long a time cast out the custome which made so unjust an invasion therein For S. Austin lived about the fift Century after Christ when Pedo-baptism was in a peaceable passission of Church practice and Pelagius himself sufficiently impudent was so modest and ingenious not to deny the same though such a denial had conduced much to his own advantage I have done when I have told the Reader that S. Austin brought the Baptizing of Infants as an argument to prove Original sin and in our age wherein Original sin is on ought to be granted by all we alledge the same as a reason to prove the necessity of Infants Baptism and surely so solid is the argument reciprocally that both may be firmly grounded on the same CHAP. XVI The Grand Objection drawn from the silence of Scripture herein Answered OUr Adversaries in this point gain not a greater advantage against us amongst common people then by urging of that which indeed we confesse no literal precept or practice for Pedo-baptism in Scripture By popular improving of which argument they not only gain to themselves the reputation of a strict adherence to the Word and will of God but also asperse us with the dangerous imputation of wil-worship and Popish inclinations Yea which is more they threaten us with a curse pronounced Rev. 22. 18. If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book In Answer whereunto In the first place we request our Adversaries to remember that this place by them cited out of the Revelation like a two edged sword cuts on both sides for it followeth immediatly And if any shall take away from the words of the book of this prophesie God shall take away his part out of the book of life See here a curse incurr'd as well by the defect as the excesse And be it reported to our opposites in this point whether denying such consequences which infallibly flow from Scripture be not taking away from the words as well as mutilating or abstracting the numerical words from the same More particularly I answer Baptizing of Infants appears not to such who only read the Scripture but is plainly visible to those who also search the Scriptures which John 5. 39. is the duty of all judicious Christians as by reasons out of Scripture we have made it to appear Here will it not be amisse to mind our adversaries in this point that they account themselves concerned in conscience to believe and practice many things as necessary to salvation which notwithstanding are built on the same foundation with the Baptism of Infants namely not on the expresse letter of Scripture but undeniable consequences arising from the same But I conceive such instancing though lawful yet not expedient in this unhappy juncture of time lest Satan get an advantage over us for we are not ignorant of his devices and lest such instancing though intentionally good in us prove occasionally evil to others by casting scruples into mens consciences who are quiet for the present There needs more allaying of old then raising of new jealousies in divinity more needful to settle then scatter mens belief in our dayes wherein so many deniers and more doubters in most Articles of Faith Indeed the words of the wise Eccles 12. 11. are as goads or as nailes fastened by the masters of the assemblies But such builders must be wary lest whilest they fasten one nail they do not loosen another However to prove this point I will embrace a way as sure to clear the matter and more safe not having any dangerous influence on the times This may be done by removing the instance from our age and fixing the same in the time of Gods
Church amongst the Jews Now none will deny but that wil-worship or adding to Gods Word and his Service was as utterly unlawful amongst them as amongst us Christians Yet the most religious amongst them used that as their bounden duty and necessary to Gods service which hath no original expresly in the word of God For proof hereof we shall offer three things to the readers consideration 1. Repairing to Synagogues amongst the Jews was a necessary part of Gods service 2. The same was not grounded on any expresse of Scripture 3. But consequentially on several places prudentially joyned together For the first It plainly appeareth by Christs constant practice Luke 4. 16. And as his custome was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day As sure as a seventh day return'd every week so certainly did our Saviour visit the synagogue It is also evident by the continual custome of all pious Jews Acts 15. 21. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every sabbath day To destroy these synagogues was accounted a wicked work witnesse Gods servants their passionate complaint Psal 74. 8. And again to erect them was an acceptible act alledged by the Pharisees as an argument to endeer the Centurion unto our Saviour Mat. 8. he loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue Lastly it was esteemed a heavy punishment equivalent to our excommunication John 9. 2â— to be put out of the synagogue Yet repairing to synagogues or the erecting of them was not founded on any positive precept in Gods word Indeed the Tabernacle and afterward the Temple were of Divine institution where all males were commanded to present themselves thrice a year namely at the Passeover the feast of Trumpets and Tabernaclos But these synagogues which I may terme Chappels of ease to the mother-Temple no written law obliged men either to the founding or frequenting of them Yet that the same was grounded on rational deductions from Scripture may infallibly be evinced The text saith Exod. 20. Remember thou keep holy the sabbath day And reason dictated unto them First that peoples presence at publick service was a principal part of sanctifying the sabbath Secondly that it was impossible for them to repair to the Temple and return to their houses such their distance betwixt them Thirdly therefore it was necessary some room of receipt should be provided sequestred from common uses wherein people should meet together Lastly another text affirming That the Priests lips should preserve knowledge It was proper for them and the Levites dispersed in all Israel on the sabbath in the synagogue to read Moses to the people Thus we find the first foundation of synagagues not on the floating sands of humane fancy but firm rock of Gods Word Though not directly yet by consequence collected from the same In a word as chambers and houses were for mens personal family devotions every day or as oft as they pleased as the Temple was for the national service of the Jews thrice every year so Synagogues were interposed in the middle betwixt both for Towns and Cities to serve God on the Sabbath day the whole nation meeting thrice a year every City once a week as private persons every day and as oft as they pleased Suppose now that a Priest amongst the Jews should presse an obstinate Jew to repair to the Synagogue how might he have returned this answer according to the Principles of our Anti-pedo-baptists I will go up to the Temple thrice every year and there I will not appear empty-handed But I will not on the sabbath present my self in the Synagogue which meeting is not JURE DIVINO a meer civil institution groundless on Gods word shew me a place of Scripture injoyning my attendance in a Synagogue and I will become your convert Till which time I will not only my self refrain my appearance there but wil also account it wil-worship in all such as there assemble themselves I believe not one of our Adversaries in our present Controversie which are ingenuous but will condemn such a recusant amongst the Jews for refractory and obstinate Yea they will conceive him if persisting herein to deserve Church-censure for his schismatical singularity Yet give me leave with love grief and anger to say unto him as once Nathan to David thou art the man in denying Infants Baptism which though not in so many words expressed is by necessary consequence infallibly founded on Gods Word Now although I freely confesse no litteral precedent of Pedo-baptism in Scripture yet such an one therein is presented unto us which although it will not confute our opposites it will confirm us in our judgements and though it be not able Titus 1. 9. to convince the gainsayers yet it will strengthen us in the Truth When the principal is known of him self to be sufficient any security with him will be accepted and the following instance may be cast in as over-weight to such minds who already have their full measure of perswasion in this point Namely when it is said Acts 16. 15. Lydia was Baptized and her houshold And again Acts 16. 33. of the Jaylor was baptized he and all his straight way Also 1 Cor. 1. 16. I baptized also the houshold of Stephanas For the Jaylor That Children if he had any were comprised under the expression of all his is sufficiently known by Satans interpretation Job 1. 12. of Gods commission Behold all that he hath is in thy power and Gods consenting thereunto when permitting him by vertue thereof to destroy all Jobs children And whereas in the other two instances the baptizing of whole housholds are exprest we must rationally conceive that some infants were amongst them I must confesse I can tell the time when there were three housholds of young folk in the world and then but three housholds of young folk in the world namely the three sons of Noah and his daughters in law in the Ark and yet not one Infant betwixt them all But this was a rare and mystical accident Again to hold the ballance even I can tell the time when in a large Country every familâ— offered a first-born namely in Egypt Exod. 12. 3. There was not a house where there was not one dead Which S. Austin accounts miraculous God purposely making every family fruitful that it might yield a fit object for his own justice But to wave these instances of extraordinary dispensation take three houses together indifferently numerous such as those of Lydia the Jaylor and Stephanas must be presumed to be considering the garbe of that age wherein most of mens moveable wealth consisted in men and maid servants with the children begotten by them and it is utterly improbable but some infants will be amongst them For a great family is like unto an Orenge tree which at the same time hath buds and blossoms and knobs and green and half ripe and full ripe Orenges on it all together I mean
it is 1. Baptize 2. Teach and teach What is wanting in the precedent Teach let it be supplied over and above in the consequent Teach to make amends for the preparatory Teach before baptism whereof infants age is incapable let there be a duplicate double your endeavours in the confirming Teach so soon as they shal be able to learn Line upon line Precept upon precept here a little and there a little dropping in instruction as the vessel is able to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture as we have formerly observed always signifieth a sucking child Now it is said of Timothy 2 Tim. 3. 15. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a childe he had known the holy Scriptures Not when a childe but from a child Infancy was the terminus à quo from whence his learning of Scripture bears date How timely did he start in the race of Religion by the direction of his devout parents who herein may be exemplary unto all others Now let parents think to cast off their care on those who are Sponsores or Susceptores Godfathers to their children as I deny not an ancient and useful institution of them in the Primitive times so can I not but bemoan that our age hath turned the same into a formality or Christian complement Judah said to Simeon Judg. 1. ◠Come up with me into my lot and I likewise will go up with thee into thy lot So men exchange and barter this office betwixt them answer thou for my child to day and I on like occasion will answer for thine the civility is discharged by both when the christianity too oft is performed by neither I look therfore on Godfathers generally as on brasse Andirons standing more for sight then service ornament then use whiles the main weight and stresse in performing the promise must lie on the parents themselves do discharge in teaching and teaching their Baptized Infants Object The deaf and dumb are not to be admitted to Baptism though adult and full grown because of their inability to give an account of their faith But children are ranked in the same form with the deaf and dumb therefore they ought not to be admitted unto Baptism This is the thirty sixth and last argument amongst many frivolous ones alledged by the Transilvanian Anabaptists against the baptizing of infants placing belike much confidence therein to hem and conclude all the rest Answ Both propositions are false First If the dumb and deaf can with signs and gestures which nature hath made in them marvelously expressive evidence and testifie their faith they must be admitted to Baptism as the third Councel of Carthage did decide Secondly Children are not in the same but a better condition Those Mutes after maturity can never recover their hearing and speech but by miracle whereas Infants naturally are capable of both in due season We read Mark 7. 32. that they brought one to our Saviour that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech not that he was only troubled with a lisping or stamering but that he was directly dumb as appears by the peoples acclamations vers 37. when the miracle was wrought upon him he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak and generally those infirmities are twins going both together yet Christ discovered in him a sufficiency of faith such as he was pleased to accept for his bodily cure How more comfortably then may Christian parents presume that God will graciously behold their Infants who though deaf that is not hearing to understand and dumb not able to speak may in processe of time arrive to the use of both That God I say who when with a favourable eye he looks for goodnesse in any heart findeth and fixeth it there by his favourable looking for it Besides such persons defective in their senses though full in age may ponere obicem by their prave dispositions put a bar or obstacle wilfully to defeat the effect of Baptism and their right thereunto This cannot be done by infants their very worst enemies who deny them actual faith yea any dispositive degree thereunto dare not charge them with what I may terme positive infidelity As for original sin that can be no bar because Baptism was designed by God for the washing away thereof God is no Mountebank his receipts do the deed for which they were prescribed Indeed if the patient besides that disease for the cure whereof Gods receipt is given him shall by his own intemperance wilfully contract a new malady no wonder if this Physick fall short of the cure for which it was intended But infants not being able to draw on themselves any other sin we cannot but in charity believe their undoubted right unto and benefit by baptism CHAP. XIX Whether the Children of Profane Parents Bastards Exposed Children and the Captive Infants of Pagans are to be Baptized SOme maintain that infancy alone is the requisite to qualifie Infants to be Baptized Others upon just grounds conceive a choice must be made of the infants admitted thereunto and those most scrupled at fall under the following Quaternion The first are the Children of Profane Parents living within the pale of the Church such as I may sorrowfully terme Pagan Christians Christians by their profession Pagans by their notorious visible debauched conversation Otherwise I confesse the words pious and profane in our modern Religious Canting made by many words of party and interest to cry up or decry such who in private opinions or civil concernments agree with or dissent from them The question is if such profane Parents alone tender their children to baptism and desire the same whether or no ought they to be admitted thereunto I say alone for if a good Grandfather or Grand-mother the mediate Parent survive conjoyn with them in such a tender the case is sufficiently clear that Baptism cannot be denied unto it I answer If any one related as kinred or friend to this childe will undertake conditionally viz. if he himself live and God blesse his endeavours farther then which parents themselves ought not to promise and cannot perform for the education thereof as Judah in another case for the bringing up of his brother Benjamin out of Egypt Gen. 43. 9. I will be surety for him at my hands shalt thou require him baptism ought not to be denied unto it Quest But suppose such an undertaker cannot be found seeing he who hateth especially Spiritual suretiship is sure Prov. 11. 15. and one may justly suspect according to the proverb Ezek. 16. 44. As is the mother so is the daughter that such a childe will follow the vicious examples and dispositions of his parents Answ Here I desire the Reader to call to mind to spare my repetition thereof what formerly Chap. 4. we have written of wicked mens sharing in the foederal right to Circumcision Let him also consider the Apostles words Rom. 11. 16. If the root be holy so are the branches Now the root we