in force and vigor and by a pious recordation thereof the Penitent may confirm his Faith as Peter did and by vertue of the same once established Covenant God receiveth such to mercy and grace otherwise the infidelity and impiety of man would frustrate the goodnesse and good will of God the matter testified in baptism which it cannot because it is constant and changeth not and therefore it is a horrible prophanation of it to reiterate baptism In a word Second baptism was ever abhorred in the Orthodox Church as a kind of incestuous Birth and if you iterate it and baptise your beleevers again upon their profession of faith you must be able to make their former baptism void and no baptism which you can never do as having all things therein which God requireth unto Infant baptism Though Faith a positive and actual Faith as you call for should not be there which is not required of God and therefore is denyed of us to be a necessary condition requisite to be found manifest in every one that is to be baptised indeed in an Aethiopian Eunuch an elder Gentile it is and therefore when he said see here is water what doth hinder me to be baptised Philip answered If thou beleevest with all thine heart thou maist who answering I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and so Philip baptised him Acts 8 36 37. The onely Argument the Anabaptists triumph in I shall here give a short answer to Infants of Gentiles are not of Abrahams seed either according to the flesh because not Iowes or according to the promise because not beleevers therefore not to be baptised whilest Infants or if they be to be baptised again when beleevere But I answer First The consequent is denyed for Simon Magus and thousands more even of them that you baptise are neither 2. Nor is it true that onely Iewes are Abrahams seed according to the flesh for that part of the Gentile Galatians who pleaded for Justification by the works of the Law and thereby lay under the bondage and curse of the Law are called the children of Hagar and said to be born of the Bond-woman Sinai and Hierusalem upon earth as it is to be seen Gal. 3. 4. The Apostle applying that part of the distinction to them like as the other part the Children of Sarah to those Gentile Galathians who were justified by faith Nor 3. Is it true that onely beleevers actually beleevers as you speak are the Children of the promise for thus they do not onely at this one blow beat down all Christian infante from all interest in Christ and title to heaven and make them like as the Heathens and Pagans who yet are not wont to strike so hard yea and which is more all Jewish Infants Isaack Iacob and Ioseph these must not be with them nor were by this reason Children of the promise in their Childhood but only according to the flesh untill they did actually believe and so became Children of the promise And more absurdity yet doth follow hence that those Patriarks whom I named Abraham is to be here excepted by their infant-circumcision had no promise of grace sealed unto them but were under a Covenant of works and until the years of discretion and actual fiath were incapable of any interest in the Covenant of grace If onely true beleevers and the Elect persons be under the covenant of grace have right to the Sacraments why is the same Covenant of grace inthe outward administration thereof both in preaching the promises and applying the Seales of the Sacraments to be propounded by Gods appointment to all the outward visible members of the Church And why was Simon Magus baptised as I said 'T is true the inward saving grace of the Covenant in both Administrations is by the Holy Ghost conferred onely upon the invisible members of Christs mysticall body which are the true beleevers and elect But we not able to discern of these give the outward baptism to all those I mean all outward members of the visible Chruch You must do so for the Text before alleged out of the Acts sheweth that all they who have any degrees of Faith may and ought to be baptised But Sir will you stand to your own Tackling The baptising of beleevers hereby you think and intend to exclude Infants of Christians What then will you make of them Infidels or Beleevers can you shew any Text of Scripture old or new where any Infant of Iew or Gentile in Covenant with God is so stiled or can you give any reason of it That which makes an Unbeliever must be a positive habit of unbeleef to justifie this in an Infant will be a task too hard for you and to say that Infants do not beleeve in act or have not the habit of faith onely negatively will not in the Language of the Scripture denominate an Unbeleever Indeed those that are made Christians of heathens they must give some positive and actual expressions of their faith before they be baptised so Philip required of the Eunuch and not till then are they to be accounted beleevers but for such as are born Christians of Christians as our infants are being entred into and under a gratuitall Covenant with God we admit them unto the Initial Seal of that Covenant which is baptism without any such Testimonial Act of Fath as you require for they are not Infidels or Unbeleevers but beleevers and within the compasse of your words though not your sense the baptism of beleevers Seeing you can produce no scripture against their Faith I will see what I can do for their Faith Matth. 18.5 6. Turn to the Chapter and Verses and read them and look to your Neck in that Verse it is a Neck verse Whose shall offend one of these little ones which beleeve on me it were better for him that a Mistone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Lord what shall become of those that offend all thy little ones by dobarring and excluding them from their birth-privilege and their Right-baptism But that I aim at as to you Sir is that you would take notice that our Saviour Christ who best knew knowing the very secrets of the heart pronounceth of some little ones little Children such as he took out one of them set down in the midst of the Apostles for a pattern of Humility and Harmlesseness That they did beleeve in him its apparent that howsoever sometimes and elsewhere spirituall Children are meant by little Children such as are of a meek spirit little in their own eyes here and at this time very natural Children in age and little in growth or statute are spoken of as the very context and Antithesis do shew They who do so interpret this place do make this not the same story with that which followeth in Matth. 19.13 Where little Children are said tob e brought to Christ it may be in their
plainly and directly evinced Infants Faith and Salvation by it which is all one Doth not David say and testifie Psal 8.2 out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings hast thou ordained or founded strength or perfected praise and doth he not Psal 148.12 call upon and exhort old men and children to praise the name of the Lord the which you cannot expound of spiritual children onely as sometimes it may and somewhere for Mat. 21.15 16. they are real and bodily children that cried Hosanna to the Son of David and fulfilled Davids Speech now if these had no Grace Knowledge or Faith in Christ how could they so glorifie and praise Christ and rejoyce and even Triumph in Christ I ask again are any Infants in Christ or ingrafted into Christ or the Children of God if so as you cannot deny it for we are all one in Christ Jesus whether bond or free male or semale old or young Father or Children And God the Father hath given to Christ Infants and Children as well as Parents and Fathers and to those that Christ hath received his Father he gives eternal life But now they are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus and if they be Christ then are they Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise Galat. 3.26 28 if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 and he that is none of his Christ Baptizeth not But Christ Baptizeth with the inward Baptism also unto Remision of Sins many Infants these are some of his as who hath taken them into Covenant to be the God of them and them to be the Children of God And surely if Christ should not impart unto some Infants Knowledge and Faith according to their measure Competent to Salvation but only to the Adule and grown persons he might seem to be an Acceptor both of Ages and personages which he is not Deut. 10.17 Rom. 2.11 See John 6.35 and 37. He that commeth to me shall not hunger and he that beleeveth in me shall not thirst immediately Christ addeth whatsoever the Father giveth me shall come unto me or beleeve in me I ask you now and Quaere you hath not the Father in his everlasting Counsel and Bounty given to Christ all his Elect Infants and appointed them to be Christs when Psal 2.8 the Lord said unto him thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession if so why then they also Infants being somewhat of that whatsoever given unto Christ shall come and do come continually unto him or beleeve in him whatsoever you say or write to the Contrary that they neither shall or do believe See Galat. 3.22 The Scripture hath shut up all things under sin that the promise by Faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those that believe you hear the disease of sin in Adam is spread over all things that is all men and whatsoever is of and in man even Infants therefore the Remedy of Faith in Christ must be spread over them too that this may be as generall and large as that so Infants who are saved must and do believe in Christ See 17. John 3. This is life everlasting to know thee the onely true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Here is a General and universal Rule given by Christ himself the Author of Salvation without any inkling or tinkling of exception for everlasting life to be atteined namely by knowing and believing for that is also included in it as is specified and more enlarged in the 1 John 5.10 11 12 He that hath the Son hath life this life is in the Son and he that believeth hath this witness in himself c. Now I Quaere you again Have any of the Elect Infants the Son of God have they eternall life you cannot deny it and therefore you cannot deny them some spark of Knowledge and Faith See 2 Cor. 5.7 We walk by Faith and not by sight and 1 Cor. 13.12 now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face whence it appeareth there is but one way of joyning us all to Christ and of our enjoying of Christ which is Sight of him in Heaven or Faith in him upon earth to which Sight our Faith now is answerable being of the same nature and quality onely differing in the measure for Faith is nothing else but a sight of him John 12.44 and 4. Now I Quaere you again do not you think but the same way which serveth for all the rest of Gods Elect doth serve for Children also to joyn them to Christ and that there is but one life begun here which is perfected in heaven according to that He that believeth in me hath eternal life John 6.47 Then also must Infants have some light of the mind to see and behold Christ now here as in a looking glase so hereafter face to face See Rom. 4 6. To all Abrahams seed the promise is firm by Faith and his Title is the Father of the Faithfull the Scripture maketh him the Father of us all and all the Children of the promise i.e. The whole number of Gods Elect for of that Primary cause of our Salvation Gods holy Election Saint Paul there disputeth Rom. 9 8. which is observable against the Anabaptists who impute the Salvation of Infants solely to Gods Election which is acknowledged of us to be the Primary cause whereas in that very place he mentioneth a secondary cause of their Salvation that they are the Children of the promise and so reckoned in Abrahams seed because of that Interest they have in that blessed Seed in whom Abraham and all his posterity are partakers of the holy inheritance Now I Quaere you again here do you or dare you exclude Infants from being Abrahams Seed you must then also bar them from having interest and part in Christ if not why do you or dare you to deny them Faith seeing that in the same manner as Abraham obtained the Blessing which was by Faith so must all Nations of the world Jews Gentiles and every particular person all and as many as lay under the curse before even Infants therefore obtain the Blessing by Faith according as it is Gal. 3.8.13 14. What should I run on thus your self will prove as much for me anon and agaiost your self for in your confutation or rather consideration following upon Acts 2.39 there you say That nothing but Faith answereth the promise and I shall tell you that Faith answereth it as the condition If then there be no other way or means for Infants to come by Righteousness or Salvation but by Faith or believing the condition of the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel as works and doing was of the Covenant of Nature and the Law you must either grant some Infants to believe and have Faith or else
in your first Leaf with the good and old way of the Baptism of believers stand now therefore in the way and see ask for the old pathes where is the good way and walk therein such a one I have shewed you without your asking even this the Baptism also of Infants walk therein and ye shall find rest for your Soul as there it followeth but if ye say still as there it followeth also we will not walk therein then I shall look upon you as Saint Austins myracle and wonder that I may end with him with whom I began this who believed not when the world believed Practice not when the world Practiseth Seeing then you care not for looking behind you to Antiquity look before you and see the Reformed Churches in France Dutchland Scotland why not England if Infant-Baptism be not now in present the practice and Custom and so hath been of old of these and other Reformed Churches what then is your Church if you have any but a deformed one but a New upstart one who oppose this so General Custom both Ancient and Modern and have quite cast it out of your doors introducing instead thereof and setting up the Man-Baptism and Infant Rebaptism crying out daily for these your Great little Nothings Diana's of the Ephesian first love and first Baptism forsaking Anabaptists Let the advise you to lay your hand upon your mouth and cease declaiming and clamouring against this infant-Baptism for therein you reproach God and his Church God for appointing Infant-Circumcision and his Church for using Infant-Baptism yea to lay your hand upon your heart and in love to the Truth to return unto your First Love and Truth to enter again into Communion and fellowship with your Mother-Church of England and those other her Sister-Churches of the Protestants giving unto us the Right of Fellowship who are ready to reach forth the same to you and also to embrace you And if this be any Blook you stumble at in the way to our Churches that there are Rents and Divisions still amongst us whom may we thank for them even about this infant-Baptism I answer you in a word that our differences are not about Baptizing Infants but about Infants to be Baptized and so in the Point of Paedobaptism or Infant-Baptism we are all agreed and agrieved only at your Schism and Division which you have made in our Churches which are all against you therefore our care must be if we cannot hold fellowship with you to keep our Communion notwiststanding with all Christian Churches and if you will separate and depart from us and them we must let you depart a Brother or a Sister is not under Boadage in such Cases But God hath called us to peace peace as Christs Legacy left to his Church we are willing to have with all man so we may withall retain Truth And seeing whil'st we speak of peace you are still for dissention whil'st we propound truth you will still hold errors our care must be and shall be I hope in our particulars to maintain and preserve our peace and Truth and our Communion in both withall the Reformed Churches abroad in this point of Infant-Baptism which Churches as ours at home God hath blessed in this way with great increase of heavenly gifts and infinite numbers of renouned professours and Saints of those that have bin baptized in their Infancy And that knowing the time that now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep Ro. 13.11 to repent of those sinful Scismes and Rents and Separations you have made between your selves and us and other true Churches to give over your charging us and them with iniquity wherein we shew piety and your putting a divine restraint upon Infant Baptism wherein God hath given them and us liberty and in excluding Christian poor Infants those privileges and helps to heaven which Christ hath indulged them And thus I have answered your last Quaere shewing unto you what warrants we have out of the word for our Baptizing of Infants namely the six warrants reasoned out of the word which are six Reasons warranted out of the word Now joyn all these reasons together with the Scripture out of which they are deduced and will they not make that Analogy or proiportion of Faith as to this point of Infant Baptism according to which we are to proceed nay may they not all arise to a Tantamount Command or a virtual or implicite Command or a consequential Command of the same yea I have made two or three of them to be such in their particulars I have been so used to give you Commands out of the word for our former practices being called ever upon by you for such Commands which so ring still in my ears that though the word warrant do not put me upon such a hot service as a Command which I believe notwithstanding you meant your Tongue either out-running or short-running your wit I shall interpret your challenge or Quaere to aim at what Command out of the word have you for Baptizing Infants And first what Command have you out of the word against Baptizing Infants of Baptized Parents if none Then you deny Baptism to those to whom Christ denyed it not and so in a manner you deny Christ to be your Master and if you deny him you deny also him that sent him if none then you have no authority to infring or Counter-command the liberty of the Church herein ye take too much upon you Sone of Muncer Secondly What Command would you have out of the word for our Baptising Infants of Baptised Parents do you mean an express and praticular Command in calling for this you grant an explicite Command for it and a general one I am glad of this and will make much of it as to my purposes for as general propositions are enough to infer their particular all Children of the Church and in Covenant are to be baptised and therefore the Infants of Baptised Parents are to be baptised So implicite Commands which are but folded up and wrapped in good reasons or good consequences are sufficient for all true Subjects and Disciples of Christ to do a work and this of Baptising the infants of baptised Parents as if it had been more expressed The words intimation or a deduction from the Word is to me and ought to be to you the Words Expression and an injunction from the Word For if you be so streit girdled and queasie-stomacht or narrow throated that nothing will down with you or can be digested but onely expresse Commands in so many Words Letters and Syllables as Infant-baptism doth consist of Then I pray produce such an expresse Command out of the Word for Children of Beleevers when they are grown to be instructed and baptised upon the Confession of Faith or for Baptism of Believers onely in Christian Churches to use your own words or for Woemens eating the Passeover and receiving the Lords Supper or for the first
such were baptised and all their housholds such a one and All his by the Apostles is your imagination so strong and wide as to shut out the children first out of doors of those housholds that so next you may exclude them from the Apostles Baptism You must do so if there were any within doors or tell us that the Apostles passed by them in their baptisings or you must shew us that all the Women in those housholds were barren not a Mother of a Child or a young one amongst them all For though there should not have been in them Infants or Sucklings yet if but a youngling and a Child of some years all would have been but as one as to their Understanding and confessing Or you must thus divide the housholds as you are good at dividing houses and households setting the Husband against the Wife and alienating the Children from Father Mother which is a very bad practice and say that not all the Houshold was baptised whereas the Text saith expresly He and all his houshold were baptised but some major part or the most considerable part of the house and when it is said the house of Israel was circumcised its meant not of a part either major or most considerable but of the whole house as to the Parents and Children and Servants also or Proselytes under their education and instruction I do not wonder you cannot abide our University Arts and Sciences These cannot abide you and such reasonings and interpretations the Apostles baptised such and all their housholds that is the greater part the people of Growth for though sometimes such a word may be so taken where all are not capable of the thing done or spoken of you must prove it to be so here meant in all the places where the Apostles baptised such and all their housholds which you can never doe the express Letter which you are so for is expresly against you such and all their housholds of which many times also children are not onely some of all and a part of the whole but in your Tearms one of them at least the major part I say not the most considerable but I say a capable part too but if in all or any of these housholds there was but one infant or any one young stripling you are gone as to the Apostles practice who baptised the beleever and all his houshold and incapacity here is none to hinder either our interpretation or the Apostles ministration for if there had been any in the houshold uncapable The Apostle would not have baptised the whole houshold or the beleever and all his houshold and I have abundantly shewed before from the Apostle that Infants of Beleevers are capable of baptism Verse 32. Now if be said that the Apostle preached and spake the word to the Gaoler All that were in the Gaolers house so all might beleeve and be baptised it is true the Apostle did so speak the word to all capable of it but yet at the 31. Verse he speaks of the salvation of all the house upon the tearms of the Gaolers beleeving for that the promise and Covenant being so made at first held still to beleevers parents and their children and here also servants because it is said he and all his were baptised in the 33. verse So it appears to me that the Gaoler himself onely beleeved and had an inward work of Faith wrought in the heart upon some special evidence he received of Christ come in the flesh whereupon he and his of whom the other Pagans of his family there is nothing said as to their faith whether servants of growth or children under age the whole houshold were baptized immediately in relation to the Fathers and Masters undertaking and engaging for themselves and their housholds And indeed to keep to my particular if such in these or our housholds as did or do actually beleeve and professe were and are to be baptised onely why was the houshold as of the Gaoler before who onely there beleeved as I have shewed so the houshold of Lydia of whom onely it is said that the Lord opened her heart to beleeve in Christ baptised Surely the Apostles would not bring in a different Administration now in the housholds of beleeving Christians whether out of Jewes or Pagans from that which ever was in use and practice amongst the housholds of beleeving Jewes at first and therefore went here according the common custom formerly used in time of circumcision and where they baptised any beleeving Father of a Family there they did baptise or others for them the children of the same houshold or might have done Otherwise how could they the Apostes when they preached the Gospel to all Nations and so to their housholds how could they bring the blessing of Abraham into all Nations and their housholds according to the prophecy and promise thereof by God if they did not apply the Covenant and the Seal generally to them and theirs in the same manner as it was to him and his so that the children of beleevers might now be baptised as formerly they were circumcised And lastly I may add this That when men in those dayes were converted from Judaism or Pagainism they did probably at their admittance into the Church by baptism make an open and solemn League and Covenant with God before some people present to professe the Faith of Christ they and their housholds which Saint Paul may seem to put some of them in mind of Ephesians 6.4 Fathers bring up your Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And therefore when the Apostles did baptise housholds of beleevers they did it in relation on to the Parents or others in their stead undertaking and ingaging for themselves and the children therein And thus now at last and at length too as all other point I have asserted unto you this Point also of Apostolical Practice and Examples for the baptizing of the children and Infants of believing Parents I have answered all your Quaeres and I hope have informed and setled your judgement better by my answers than you could do it by our Quaeres for I cannot yet forget how that at the end of them you say these your Quaeres are your judgement I proceed now to what you have more in your Letter of two sheets but do not mean to proceed as I have begun either to transcribe all your words of the second sheet all have done your words of the first or to bestow twenty and five sheets closely written in answering of your second sheet but loosely written as I have done upon your first sheet for I have dispatched hitherto but the one first sheet of your Letter and there is good reason for it For the first sheet for the most part put Quaeres to me in your number twenty one and they contained in them some material and substantial things to be answered of a large extent and great depth and therefore I thought
Gentiles that are in Covenant with God and enjoy the Ordinances of his grace and mercy do also by vertue of Gods Promise I will be thy God and the God of thy seed convey to their issue and posterity a state and privilege and so rather it is the joynt Covenant made by God with both together the Parent and his issue and posterity to be reputed of a holy and clean society and Congregation before God from the other Pagan and heathenish world and so the child or children born of such Parents in Covenant to be truly holy like as the Parent because of the Covenant Not that insants have any real personal qualitative holiness in them which is and must be in all true believers whither Parents or children to make them acceptable to God as to justification and Salvation whom I confess though born within the Church and of believing Parents to be born in sin naturally and be unclean children of wrath by nature as well as others the children of Pagans without the Church But I say they have a federal and parental so it may be called by a savory mouth and relative or imputative holiness put upon them by the Covenant of God and brought forth or executed on them by or at their birth of believing Parents which is sufficient and enough to make them passe in the eyes of God and in the face of the visible Church for clean and holy or if not their professions of the faith of Christ for you will not deny them to be professors of Christ and members of the Church in part and in kinde at leastwise by the mouth of their Sureties presenting them and speaking for them this will bear them out to be holy likewise And what if I should tell you in your ear that Christian infants in Covenant with God are holy too by an inward holiness also are not all inward sanctifying graces effects of Gods Covenant and who knoweth when God as where he effects them you perhaps would stop that ear cry out Then grace which onely maketh holy cometh successively and is derived by nature and Parents shall be the authors and conveighers of grace and holiness to their children No such matter Sir For the children are primitively holy with the Parents by the Covenant as co-partners and confederates with them therein I will be thy God and the God of thy seed not derivatively holy from the Parents as solely or first partners and prefederates without these Christian Parents and children are both joynt confederates I say and do both draw and derive together their holiness as other privileges from the Covenant and Tenour of grace therein and not successively from one another children from Parents derivatively as you fondly fansie to your self and erroniously imagine The which truth may also serve much to clear off those cloudy difficulties so much pressed by the Anabaptistical party from the Jesuitical side about infants being Baptized sanctified saved by the faith of their Parents as they use to blate and bâ—â—e abroad You like enough before you will believe any holiness in them would have them shew some such thing either in words before they can speak and whilest they are infants that is nonfants or indeed before they have any idoneity of instruments and ability to act Have patience a while and you may hear them speak the words and see them do some acts of holiness What! are you so sensual all for sense and so altogether lead by sense that nothing but a sensative or sensible manifestation of holiness in children will be believed by you I had thought you had walked by faith and not by sight you believe a holiness in other things in Faith in the Word in the Sacraments in the Church of God and in all things which the holy Scriptures the oracles of holiness have pronounced holy though you have not a visible and sensible demonstration of holiness in them you walk by faith there and not by fight and why cannot you believe a holiness in children of Christian Parents in Covernant with God though they shew forth no sensible effects of such holiness seeing also the same holy Scripture doth call them holy and not unclean and so supplying their defect of speech and action giveth you what you ask even a sensible manifestation of their holiness and speaks them holy unto your ears not declares them holy to your eyes so you may now walk by sight and hear say not by faith and hope limping and halting therein for except you shall see in their hands and tongues the prints of holiness in works and words and perhaps thrust your fingers into their fides to feel the holiness of their hearts too in affections and thoughts you will not believe What and if our Saviour Christ should now as once take one of our little children in Covenant with him and set it before you and say whosoever humbleth himself as a little child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven would it not be strange for you to tell him you see no such yet you hear of such humility lowliness meakness mildness innocency in children and is it not a like to tell him you see no such holiness here when you hear of it from the mouth of Christ his and this Apostle Paul here saying They are holy But that I have said it before and already I would say that even children shew themselves more bumble lowly meek mild and innocent and so more holy than a great many of your grown Professors and grand Pretenders unto holiness and all those graces let their holiness and other graces rest but a while as seed hidden up in their hearts or wrapped up in Gods Covenant with them and see if afterwards they do not shew it and their holiness break not forth as the light at noon day that was within the cloud or as the seed in harvest that was within the clod and in the mean time shew me thy faith by thy works and thy holiness by thy words and learn to speak better of childrens holiness and to do better with children for their holiness even so well as to let them be Baptized But besides this in hand there are two eminent Texts that hold out infants of Christians their holiness by Covenant the one is Rom. 11.16 If the first fruit be holy the lump also is holy and if the root be holy so are the branches I know the stream of our Divine Advocates for Infant-Baptism run altogether and out of this Text upon a derivative holiness from the Parents or Ancestors to their children which notwithstanding they call and make a federal holiness I am not willing in my old and infirm daies to strive or swim against a stream onely I will be bold to venture and wade so far as to hint again and mention unto those akilful steersmen now especially that the waters of strife about Infant-Baptism are risen high
return and reversion to the Faith who were before baptized nor the children of Professors though baptized by Hereticks or heretical Ministers if rightly according to the Ordinance but rather condemned it and pronounced it a Heresie to hold it or to practise so a Rebaptization For the Sacrament of the Eucharist there is a Quotiescunque it should be received as oft of the same Person as may be conveniently for that our growth and augmentation in grace ought to be daily and continually whereof the Eucharist is the Sacrament But I never read of above a semel of the Sacrament of Baptism that it should be received above once of the same person because our Spiritual Birth and incision into Christ is but once whereof Baptism is the Sacrament The thing is acted but once and therefore is signified but once I acknowledge indeed that it is no where expresly written that baptism should not be irerated and received the second time so it s no where said there are three Persons of the Deity though the word of persons is no in sacred Writ yet the will of God about the things signified by the Word is revealed and expressed in the same So the Will of God that baptism should not be iterated and once baptized should not be re-baptized or baptized the second time appears partly out of what I have alledged 1. That Circumision was never iterated none ever circumcised twice and Baptism succeeds Circumcision 2. That there is mention made of an Iteration or often Receiving the Lords Supper but not a syllable of Intimation there or elsewhere of the like of Baptism 3. That in the very Place and Scripture where Christ instituted Baptism which yet had been the very proper place for it there is no order at all for re-baptizing or iterating baptism 4. That among all the many examples of persons baptized There is not one recorded to have been re-baptized no not Simon the Sorcerer nor Demas the Revolter not one of the Cormthians nor of the Galathians relapsed but onely were called upon to Return to the Grace of the Covenant sealed in their first Baptism by Repentance and Faith I suppose the grand reason of your re-dipping and re-baptizing in elder age is this for that you hold your first dipping and baptizing to be vain Invalide frustrate which was transacted in your infancy for so one of your Sect told me the other day that when he was a Child he was Christened but he was then also but cozened As I warned him so I wish you to take heed unto your wayes that you offend not in your tongue or thought so as in either of them to reproach the Living God or blaspheme his holy and effectual Baptism by thinking and calling this a Cozenage and him a Mocker Did God cozen the whole Church and People of Israel when he appointed and commanded their children even but of eitht days old to be circumcised how then doth he cozen the Church and people of the Gentils in our Infants baptized seeing baptism is the Circumcision made without hands Col. 2.11 Nay seeing both Circumcision and Baptism are the signs and seals of that one and the same Everlasting Covenant of Grace they neither are nor can be any cozenage or frustrate things to the right Partakers of them until they be frustrated by themselves the Partakers as by Esau was his birth-right and also his circumcision and them God is rather mocked and cozened then a Mocker and Cozener but they are valide and of force to the spiritual good ends and purposes of either and therefore being rightly once imprinted are of vigour and vertue of frait and efficacy during life and so long as the Covenant lasteth which is everlasting as I said and so need not to be repeated and reiterated but are often to be revolved and revived in our mindes memories and meditation and the Tenor of the Covenant daily to be studied and practised and the Conditions thereof on our part to be observed and performed accordingly Rather your self Sir and your two Sisters were cozeded and cheated and never so much in all your lives as when you renounced that your first Christian Infant baptism and received this your second novel youthful Dippism Nor can that be any good reason of your re-dipping or rebaptizing your defect of Faith in the time of your Infancy or sithence days of age your Eccess of sins such as have vacated the gracious Covenant and vitiated a good Conscience For you must consider that the Covenant is sealed in Baptism or Baptism is added to the Covenant on Gods part as well as mans God promising there Grace and Eternal life and man stipulating for Faith and new Obedience Though therefore you might or did fly from the performance of your Promise by Hypocrisie or Apostasie and upon such default on your part lost your right and claim of eternal life God notwithstanding stood and standeth still firm to his Promise on his part as who never breaketh Covenant with any nor ever loseth his right to any party baptized by any default made on his side These things if they be true as they are most true God being not as man that be should change and alter to what purpose was it that you should or did entâ—r anew into a Covenant with God and reiterate the seal thereof Baptism and so be rebaptized and re-dipped which was but will-worship of yours fruitless and a tradit on of men needless no where commanded you of God no where exemplified to you by the men of God the Saints This rather you should have done as that one and onely necessary thing you should have repented of your evil ways and works and so have returned unto God in Covenant already and still with you sealed in your Infant-Baptism though forfeited on your part yet not released on Gods part This you should have earnestly pleaded with God confessing your sins and by Faith firmly embracing it through Christ your Advocate and Mediatour Thus you would have set your former Baptism on work and your self too in performing the conditions thereof and so you should have recovered and received all the fruits and benefits of the Covenant of Grace sealed to you by Baptism in your Infancy This every where in Scripture do the Prophets call upon Covenant-breakers on their part and his revolting and relapsed people to repent and to return to their first Covenant with God sealed in their Circumcision not to any re-circumcision as you may see Jeremy 3.1 12. Hos 2.7 and 6.1 And so the Apostle cals to the Corinthians and the Galathians who were far gone from God yea fain from Grace not to put off their old baptism and to put on a new but to put off the old man and to put on the new to Repent of sin and to return to the Grace of the Covenant to perform the condition of their baptism and to grow up in the fruits of the Spirit minding them
by the Beard and mouth and slew him for all his roaring quirks and howling quaeries and so have delivered you if you will be delivered from the spirit of bondage and love not your chain and fetters of their Errors more then the Freedom and Liberty of Truth for if the Truth or the Son of God who is the Truth have made or shall make you free then you are free indeed Now then and lastly Sir shew your self a true Israelite come and hear the Truth and know your friends the soul-truth which is the sole-truth and your soul-friends which are your sole-friends and come away from those Task-masters that lay heavy burthens upon your bodies and dip them under water over head and ears for their own gain more then yours and for their advantage to an evil cause Forego your bondage and darkness of Aegypt which goeth under the name of New-light and Liberty forget your garlick Onions and Flesh-pots which they call The Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit run from their hot furnaces and rash fires which they tearm Zeal keep away from their Ponds cold waters which they call Dipping Baptizing depart from the Tents of those that practice Rebellion under pretence of Religion Holines shake off your fellowship with their unfruitful works and words and as you have heard unprofitable Preachings and Teachings presumed upon under the Title of a gifted Brother-hood and Fraternity leave the Citizens or Farmers field and the Husks there and arise and go to your Fathers house the Church of God where is bread enough and to spare for the servants and much more for the Sons Get loose from those Bushes and Brambles where you are are entangled before you lose all the wool off your back and be fleeced by them Come now then and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimsom they shall be as wool If you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land but if you refuse and rebel you shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Esay 1.18 19 20. Yea come and return as to the Lord so to your Pastor Here 's the right hand of fellowship and true Brotherhood I offer unto you to set you free and to help you out and to defend you against them yea and now that I have been long going after you as a lost sheep and one of my hundred fold and have found your at last I will lay you on my shoulders to bring you home again and wil undergo any labour and pains for your Reversion Reduction bearing also with your former defects or defaults with patience and meekness as the Apostle bids we should bear one anothers burthens Gal. 6.2 yea and I shall call together our friends and neighbours to a publick rejoycing and thanksgiving bearing also the Burthen of the Song or Psalm my self and saying Rejoyce with me for I have found my sheep which was lost yea and the blessed Angels above will be of the Quire and there will be joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth as your self yea and Christ Jesus the Great shepheard of all the sheep and of all souls will embrace your returning delight in you Who his own self bare your sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 For you was as a sheep going astray but if you shall return unto this Shepherd and Bishop of your soul When the chief Shepherd shall appear you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away whereby you will be glorified in heaven and in the mean time he will put a Crown of Righteousness upon your head that falleth not off whereby you shall be both justified and sanctified also Nay your self will thus become a Crown of rejoycing to us all my self especially For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoycing Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming Yea you are our glory and joy 1 Thes 2.19 Therefore my brother dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown Phil. 4.1 return unto the Lord the Lords Church and Flock the Lords Ministery and Pasturage the Lords Covenant with Parents and their Children the Lords Baptism and Sheep-mark and so stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work of righteousness and word of truth working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Heb. 13.20 21. If yet notwithstanding all this friendly invitation and fair warning you will not hear and hearken to come in but will go still astray My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eyes shall run down with tears because the Lords flock and your self for one amongst them is carried away captive Jer. 13.17 Wherefore I take you to record this day in which you have read over what I have written to you that I am pure from the blood of you all you and all for what I say unto you I say unto all for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God Acts 20.26 27. in these particulars that he hath out of his Word revealed unto me And so I have delivered my soul as to you and them by foretelling and forewarning you of the truth as a Watchman set over you Ezek. 33.9 if you will not deliver your soul by obeying the truth and submit thereunto when it is held out to you by him who hath the rule or guide and oversight of you and watcheth for your soul and must give account and would do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Heb. 13.17 Then you will die in your iniquity and obstinacy your blood will be required at your own hands and will lie upon your own head who can help it unless God forbid it the which also God forbid I pray God Yea once more also I call heaven and earth to record this day against you Deut. 30.19 or for you that I have set before you life and death Blessing and Cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live and that thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that his Covenant that he made to be thy God and the God of thy seed and that thou mayest obey his voyce and that command for the baptizing of the Parent and his Seed That thou mayest cleave unto him and not forsake your God in Covenant with you sealed in your Infancy by renouncing your Baptism then and now running after other unprofitable Dippings for he is thy life and the length of thy dayes that thou mayest dwell here on earth a while and also be in Heaven for ever And now to him that is of power to establish you according to the Gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ and the Revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandement of the Everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith To God onely wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen Rom. 16 25 26 27. To which onely wise God and his Providence committing my self and what I have written here as likewise to the same onely good God and his blessing commending you and what you shall read here even to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up who are fallen from that of Baptism and to establish all that stand therein I take my leave and give you farewel resting your affectionate and inseparate Pastor and Friend Jeffry Watts FINIS ERRATA EPistle to the Reader page 2. l. 8. read Printer p. 11. l. 22. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 19. l. 16. r. word p. 24. l. 27. r. even p. 25. l 13. r. Hypocriticab p. 27. l. 18. r own p 32. 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Running title for honour r. beware p. 256. l. 31. r. devising p. 273. l. 28. r. brethren p. 274 l. 31. r. comb p. 276. l. 37. r. so p. 278. l. 2. r. have made p. 290. l. 1. add you Of Baptism Page 24 line 31 read with p 56 running Title r not practical p 61 l 3 r or p 72 l 33 r your p 73 l 24 for Chap r Verse p 74 l 3 blot out and p 87 l 30 add iâ— p 100 l 28 blot out in p 103 l 21 r they p 117 l 19 r alwayes p 131 l 16 r she l 17 blot out of p 140 l 16 r Apostle p 142 l 38 r the p. 145 l 35 r procreating p 151 l 37 r these p. 157 l 11 r friend p 163 l 35 for can r you p 164 l 7 add was p 198 l 32 r Apostles l 34 for yet are r were l 35 for to r doe The Dipper Sprinkled Page 13 line 6 read fruit p 19 l 39 r naughtiness p 27 l 26 r sicca p 28 l 18 add as p 30 l 2 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 37 l 8 blot out die p 48 l 14 r. four p 81 l 18 r potissimum
leave them destitute of the ordinary way and means or shew from Scripture some other of their Righteousness and Salvation Yea if Infants be saved without Faith they must then be saved without Christ for as there is none other name or person under Heaven given amongst â—â—en whereby we must be saved than the Lord Jesus Act. 4.12 So there is none other means or grace under Heaven given amongst men whereby we may apprehend the Lord Jesus save Faith Matth. 3.16 and Heb. 11.6 Remember your own words nothing but Faith answereth the Promise If Infants have no Faith to answer the promise nor works to answer the precept how shall they do for the answer of a good conscience towards God or a saving Baptism 1 Pet. 3.21 Or what shall they do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall they answer him Job 31.14 If he will contend with them they cannot answer him one of a thousand Job 9.3 unless in Christ by Faith they be and then all is answered I could wish some others of a more vigorous body and brain would prosecute these and many other Scriptures to the proof of Faith in Infants Elect and saved the which as I take it would best stop the mouthes of the gainsayers of Infant-Baptism who now not satisfied with their being in Covenant with God also or his giving of spiritual grace to them never leave calling for Faith Faith in Infants so would it set opener and wider the way of Infants to their Baptism even in the opinion of the adversaries thereof If you question how such could believe in Christ Christ who tells you so gave them to do so and so may give to others Is thine eye evill because he is good may he not do with his own as him pleaseth Take that thine is and go thy way it may be he will give unto this least even as to thee Though Intants want the outward Means of Faith which they are not capable of as the Hearing of the Word by which Faith ordinarily is gotten yet there are other besides what you will say extraordinary and so you will fly now your self to extraordinaries who have taxed us of extraordinaries no such matter for besides the ordinary outward Menas of Faith in the Church which an Infant wanteth and is not capable of there are ordinary inward Means of the same Faith which it may find and of which it is capable namely Christ the Author of Faith and the Spirit of Faith both these are internal but ordinary Means of Faith in the Church and avaylable when the outward are wanting and the outward unavay leable where those inward are wanting But you can discern no such matter of Faith in Infants these shew no such thing as Faith what then what evidence of expression do you see or they shew of a reasonable soul in them by this reason you may conclude them unreasonable as well as unbelievers Even Childrens souls are equal and like as yours and mine are in the essentials which are as large and ample to all intents and purposes though pent up for want of room as our souls are and are capable of Grace They are Rational Creatures Seminally and in the inward Principle of human Nature which is a reasonable Nature though through defect of age they are not Rational Productively and in the fruits or external proceedings or operations of reason and so they may be Believers as to the Root and Fountain of Faith the Spirit of God in the first act though they may want the second act thereof which is the increase of it in themselves and the deriving the knowledge of it to others So then Infants in the Church may have Faith and all the Elect of them have fot it is called the Faith of Gods Elect Tit. 1.1 and you as you cannot descry it in them so you cannot decry it Therefore by your own Tenet and Rule they going for Believers and Elect may be Baptized yea all ought to go so out of a charitable perswasion and opinion that ought to be in us and you howsoever it goeth with them as to the Truth and Reality and therefore all should be Baptized for by the same reason you Baptize any of those you call Believers we Baptize all Infants of Believers and unless it were so none at all were to be Baptized Those that come to you one by one in a profession of Faith you have but a good and charitable opinion of his Faith and Election you can have no sure and certain knowledge of the same For this and that Person may be an Hypocrite and Reprobate yet you Baptize him and him Now therefore may not we do the like there comes presented to us this and that Child one and another in the evidence of Gods Covenant engraven as it were upon them by their birth of Parents in Covenant we have also a charitable perswasion of their Faith and Election and can have no more for there are also Infants born in the Church that are Reprobates and so we Baptize them But if onely the true Beleevers and Elect were to be Baptized then you and we must have a certain knowledge of every Infants and every mans Faith and Election as the ground of our and your Baptizing them the which because neither we nor you can have in any ordinary way neither of us by this Rule must Baptize any at all You hope the best of all and so do we your old Limitation may do well here so far as man can judge which in this case is just nothing and that 's all can be said on both sides but still I must prompt you that it is not knowledge of the Infants being in Election and the signs of it or being in the Faith and the prosession of it but the being in the Covenant and a relation to it that is and ought to be the ground of Baptism in the Church of God now because we find and know all Infants born of Christian Parents within this Covenant Relation know not which of them is Elect or not for if we knew who were Reprobates we neither would nor ought to Baptize them we do therefore Baptize all of them lest otherwise we should and might deny the Seal of the Covenant to some of the Elect Children of God Me thinks you who assume so much of the Spirit to your selves Take heed you do not presume too much of your selves therein there be they who separate themselves having not the Spirit Jude 19. should not be so Covetous or Envious and it may be refistous and then it is blasphemous as to deny some degrees of the Spirit and the graces thereof to Infants when as the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and thou canst not tell whither it goeth when as also the Dove-like Spirit of God hath a neer compliance with and a great complacency in Child-like meekness mildness humility patience of which graces he is pleased to stile himself the Spirit more