fulfilled the Law making it up in full measures of the Spirit By these steps Baptism passed on to a divine Evangelical institution which we finde to be consigned by three Evangelists Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It was one of the last Commandments the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his kingdome For he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but Vnless a man be born of Water and the holy Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises The uncircumcised childe whose flesh is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant The Manichees Seleucus Hermias and their followers people of a dayes abode and small interest but of malicious doctrine taught Baptism not to be necessary not to be used upon this ground Because they supposed that it was proper to John to baptize with water and reserved for Christ as his peculiar to baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise He sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire the Spirit appearing like a flame but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water and they did so and their successors after them every where and for ever not expounding but obeying the praeceptive words of their Lord which were almost the last that he spake upon earth And I cannot think it necessary to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments For the words are so plain that they need no exposition and yet if they had been obscure the universal practise of the Apostles and the Church for ever is a sufficient declaration of the Commandment No Tradition is more universal no not of Scripture it self no words are plainer no not the Ten Commandments and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any jealous or less discerning person it will need no other refutation but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself sees Scripture to be the Word of God and the Commandments to be the declaration of his Will But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacrament for this will highly conclude That the Precept was for ever which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings and the susception of it necessary because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the graces of the Sacrament 1. The first fruit is That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ presented unto him consigned with his Sacrament enter into his Militia give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ and in all senses that we can become his Disciples witnessing a good confession and undertaking a holy life and therefore in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are conjoyn'd in the significations as they are in the mystery it is a giving up our names to Christ and it is part of the foundation or the first Principles of the Religion as appears in S. Pauls Catechism it is so the first thing that it is for babes and Neophytes in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity Ecclesiae janua Porta gratiae primus introitus sanctorum ad aeternam Dei ecclesiae consuetudinem The gates of the Church the door of Grace the first entrance of the Saints to an eternal conversation with God and the Church Sacramentum initiationis intrantium Christianismum investituram S. Bernard calls it The Sacrament of initiation and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion and the person so entring is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one of the Religion or a Proselyte and Convert and one added to the number of the Church in imitation of that of S. Luke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God added to the Church those that should be saved just as the Church does to this day and for ever baptizing Infants and Catechumens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are added to the Church that they may be added to the Lord and the number of the inhabitants of Heaven 2. The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Covenant which is an immediate consequent of the first presentation this being the first act of man that the first act of God And this is called by S. Paul a being baptized in one spirit into one body that is we are made capable of the Communion of Saints the blessings of the faithful the priviledges of the Church by this we are as S. Luke calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ordained or disposed put into the order of eternal life being made members of the mystical body under Christ our Head 3. And therefore Baptism is a new birth by which we enter into the new world the new creation the blessings and spiritualities of the Kingdome and this is the expression which our Saviour himself used to Nicodemus Vnless a man be born of Water and the Spirit and it is by S. Paul called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the laver of Regeneration for now we begin to be reckoned in a new Census or account God is become our Father Christ our elder Brother the Spirit the earnest of our inhetance the Church our Mother our food is the body and blood of our Lord Faith is our learning Religion our imployment and our whole life is spiritual and Heaven the object of our Hopes and the mighty price of our high Calling And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us the Spirit of Grace which besides our soul and body is a principle of action of one nature and shall with them enter into the portion of our inheritance And therefore the Primitive Christians who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord usually writing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Iesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour they made it an abbreviature by writing onely the Capitals thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which the Heathens in mockery and derision made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies a Fish and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach but the Christians owned the name and turned it into a pious Metaphor and were content that they should
redeemed and washed with the blood of the Holy Lamb who was slain for all from the beginning of the world After all this it is not inconsiderable that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments which is observeable in many instances She appointed what persons she pleased and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery The Apostles first dispensed all things and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the word of God and prayer and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to baptize when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch to the work of preaching and greater ministeries and accounted that act of the Church the act of Christ saying Christ sent mee not to baptize but to preach the Gospel they used various forms in the ministration of Baptism sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ sometimes expressely invocating the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity one while I baptize thee as in the Latine Church but in Greek Let the servant of Christ be Baptized and in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms in most things hath often changed them as in absolution excommunication and sometimes they baptized people upon their profession of repentance and then taught them as it hapned to the Jaylor and all his family in whose case there was no explicit faith afore hand in the mysteries of Religion so far as appears and yet he and not onely he but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the earthquake was terrible and the fear was pregnant upon them this upon their Masters account as it is likely but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous faith and a new begun repentance * They baptized in rivers or in lavatories by dipping or by sprinkling for so we finde that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern Countries according to the prophecy of Isaiah So shall he sprinkle many Nations according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling and it is fairly relative to the mystery to the sprinkling with the blood of Christ and the watering of the furrows of our souls with the dew of heaven to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto holinesse The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times sometimes but once some Churches use fire in their baptisms so do the Ethiopians and the custome was antient in some places And so in the other Sacrament sometimes she stood and sometimes kneeled and sometimes received it in the mouth and sometimes in the hand one while in leavened another while in unleavened bread sometimes the wine and water were mingled sometimes they were pure and they admitted some persons to it sometimes which at other times she rejected sometimes the Consecration was made by one forme sometimes by another and to conclude sometimes it was given to Infants sometimes not and she had power so to do for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or imployed in the nature and in the end of the institution the Church had power to alter the particulars as was most expedient or conducing to edification and although the after ages of the Church which refused to communicate Infants have found some little things against the lawfulnesse and those ages that used it found out some pretences for its necessity yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities so in all things they followed Christ Certainly there is infinitely more reason why Infants may be communicated then why they may not be baptized And that this discourse may revert to its first intention although there is no record extant of any Church in the world that from the Apostles dayes inclusively to this very day ever refused to baptize their children yet if they had upon any present reason they might also change their practise when the reason should be changed and therefore if there were nothing els in it yet the universal practise of all Churches in all ages is abundantly sufficient to determine us and to legitimate the practise since Christ hath not forbidden it It is sufficient confutation to disagreeing people to use the words of S. Paul we have no such custome nor the Churches of God to suffer children to be strangers from the Covenant of Promise till they shall enter into it as Jews or Turks may enter that is by choise and disputation But although this alone to modest and obedient that is to Christian Spirits be sufficient yet this is more then the question did need It can stand upon its proper foundation Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat anathema est He that refuseth to baptize his Infants shall be in danger of the Councel The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Iesus who in thy own person wert pleased to sanctify the waters of baptism and by thy institution and commandment didst make them effectual to excellent purposes of grace and remedy be pleased to verify the holy effects of baptism to me and all thy servants whose names are dedicated to thee in an early and timely presentation and enable us with thy grace to verify all our promises by which we were bound then when thou didst first make us thy own portion and relatives in the consummation of a holy covenant O be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour in which thou didst plant us by thy grace and admit us by the gates of baptism and let that Spirit which moved upon those holy waters never be absent from us but call upon us and invite us by a perpetual argument and daily solicitations and inducements to holiness that we may never return to the filthiness of sin bnt by the answer of a good conscience may please thee and glorify thy name and doe honour to thy religion and institution in this world and may receive the blessings and the rewards of it in the world to come being presented to thee pure and spotless in the day of thy power when thou shalt lead thy Church to a Kingdome and endless glories Amen The End §. 1. §. 2. Joh. 4. 14. §. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 21. §. 4. §. 5. Vmbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo S. Ambr. §. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 2. §. 7. §. 8. a Tertull. de praescrip. c. 40. b scholiast. in Ju. sat 2. l. 2. c O nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli stumineâ posse putatis aquâ §. 9. John 4. 1. §. 10. Audi quid Scripturae doceant Johannis baptisma non tam peccata dimisit quà m baptisma poenitentiae fuit in peccatorum remissionem idque in futuram remissionē quae esset postea per sanctificationem
baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea so by a double figure foretelling That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath so should all the persons of the Church Men Women and Children be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant he proved that we do not exceed them and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us nor their children ours But after this something was to remain which might not onely consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham but be as a passage from the Fathers thorough the Synagogue to the Church from Abraham by Moses to Christ and that was Circumcision which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace and to be a seal of the righteousness of faith which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males yet it was not to the females and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea yet the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes and to all that were circumcised and the Jews deliver That Sarah and Rebecca when they were adopted into the family of the Church that is of Abraham and Isaac were baptized and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel And that we may think this typical of Christian Baptism the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition that when the Messias would come there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised but should be baptized The Tradition proved true but not for their reason But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of Religion by Baptisms was used by the posterity of Noah or at least very early among the Jews besides the testimonies of their own Doctors I am the rather induced to believe because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion and they c thought Murther Incest Rapes and the worst of Crimes were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} intinctus a baptized person But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions that to baptize and to make disciples are all one and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether John's Baptism was from heaven or of men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from Heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implies also That such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by persons of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till John were but types and preparatory Baptisms and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies John's Baptism called them to believe in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand and Preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins His Baptism remitted no sins but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated the Disciples of Christ finished it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples as John did onely they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Jesus which it is not so likely John did a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms b of Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing In the Name of Iesus and at other times In the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his Resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority though with some difference of Mystery The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of John and by his Baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led onely by outward things might be the better called in and easier inticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy He sublim'd it to higher ends and adorned it with stars of Heaven He made it to signifie greater mysteries to convey greater blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper then the skin and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transferr'd the Rite to greater mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practise was made to pass into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while he
being illuminated we are adopted to the inheritance of sons being adopted we are promoted towards perfection and being perfected we are made immortal Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit exeat inde Semideus tactis citò nobilitetur in undis This is the whole Doctrine of Baptism as it is in it self considered without relation to rare circumstances or accidental cases and it will also serve to the right understanding of the reasons why the Church of God hath in all ages baptized all persons that were within her power for whom the Church could stipulate that they were or might be relatives of Christ sons of God heirs of the Promises and partners of the Covenant and such as did not hinder the work of Baptism upon their souls And such were not onely persons of age and choice but the Infants of Christian Parents For the understanding and verifying of which truth I shall onely need to apply the parts of the former Discourse to their particular case premising first these Propositions PART II. Of Baptizing INFANTS BAPTISM is the Key in Christs hand and therefore opens as he opens and shuts by his rule and as Christ himself did not do all his blessings and effects unto every one but gave to every one as they had need so does Baptism Christ did not cure all mens eyes but them onely that were blinde Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance that is they that lived in the fear of God according to the Covenant in which they were debtors were indeed improved and promoted higher by Christ but not called to that repentance to which he called the vitious Gentiles and the adulterous persons among the Jews and the hypocritical Pharisees There are some so innocent that they need no repentance saith the Scripture meaning That though they do need contrition for their single acts of sin yet they are within the state of grace and need not repentance as it is a conversion of the whole man and so it is in Baptism which does all its effects upon them that need them all and some upon them that need but some and therefore as it pardons sins to them that have committed them and do repent and believe so to the others who have not committed them it does all the work which is done to the others above or besides that pardon 2. When the ordinary effect of a Sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument yet the Sacrament is still as obligatory as before not for so many reasons or necessities but for the same Commandment Baptism is the first ordinary Current in which the Spirit moves and descends upon us and where Gods Spirit is they are the sons of God for Christs Spirit descends upon none but them that are his and yet Cornelius who had recieved the holy Spirit and was heard by God and visited by an Angel and accepted in his alms and fastings and prayers yet was tyed to the susception of Baptism To which may be added That the receiving the effects of Baptism before-haud was used as an argument the rather to minister to Baptism The effect of which consideration is this That Baptism and its effect may be separated and do not alwayes go in conjunction the effect may be before and therefore much rather may it be after its susception the Sacrament operating in the vertue of Christ even as the Spirit shall move according to that saying of S. Austin Sacrosancto lavacro inchoata innovatio novi hominis perficiendo perficitur in aliis citiùs in aliis tardiùs And S. Bernard Lavari quidem citò possumus sed ad sanandum multâ curatione opus est The work of regeneration that is begun in the Ministery of Baptism is perfected in some sooner and in some later we may soon be washed but to be healed is a work of a longcure 3. The dispositions which are required to the ordinary susception of Baptism are not necessary to the efficacy or required to the nature of the Sacrament but accidentally and because of the superinduced necessities of some men And therefore the conditions are not regularly to be required but in those accidents It was necessary for a Gentile Proselyte to repent of his sins and to believe in Moses Law before he could be circumcised but Abraham was not tyed to the same conditions but onely to faith in God but Isaac was not tyed to so much and Circumcision was not of Moses but of the Fathers and yet after the sanction of Moses Law men were tyed to Conditions which were then made necessary to them that entred into the Covenant but not necessary to the nature of the Covenant it self And so it is in the susception of Baptism if a sinner enters into the Font it is necessary he be stripp'd of those appendages which himself sewed upon his Nature and then Repentance is a necessary disposition If his understanding hath been a stranger to Religion polluted with evil Principles and a false Religion it is necessary he have an actual faith that he be given in his understanding up to the obedience of Christ and the reason of these is plain Because in these persons there is a disposition contrary to the state and effects of Baptism and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries Faith and Repentance that they may be reduced to the state of pure receptives And this is the sense of those words of our blessed Saviour Vnless ye become like one of these little ones ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven that is ye cannot be admitted into the Gospel-Covenant unless all your contrarieties and impediments be taken from you and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from heaven And this Proposition relies upon a great Example and a certain Reason The Example is our blessed Saviour who was Nullius poenitentiae debitor he had committed no sin and needed no repentance he needed not to be saved by faith for of faith he was the Author and Finisher and the great object and its perfection and reward and yet he was baptized by the Baptism of John the Baptism of Repentance And therefore it is certain that Repentance and Faith are not necessary to the susception of Baptism but necessary to some persons that are baptized For it is necessary we should much consider the difference If the Sacrament in any person may be justly received in whom such dispositions are not to be found then the dispositions are not necessary or intrinsecal to the susception of the Sacrament and yet some persons coming to this Sacrament may have such necessities of their own as will make the Sacrament ineffectual without such dispositions These I call necessary to the person but not to the Sacrament that is necessary to all such but not necessary to all absolutely And faith is necessary sometimes where Repentance is not and sometimes Repentance and
wholly nothing and infirm upon an infinite account and the second may conclude that Infants can no more be saved then be baptized because Faith is more necessary to Salvation then to Baptism it being said He that believeth not shall be damned and it is not said He that believeth not shall be excluded from Baptism it follows that the doctrine of those that refuse to baptize their Infants is upon both its legs weak and broken and insufficient Upon the supposition of these grounds the Baptism of Infants according to the perpetual practise of the Church of God will stand firm and unshaken upon its own base For as the Eunuch said to Philip What hinders them to be baptized If they can receive benefit by it it is infallibly certain that it belongs to them also to receive it and to their Parents to procure it for nothing can deprive us of so great a grace but an unworthiness or a disability They are not disabled to receive it if they need it and if it does them good and they have neither done good nor evil and therefore they have not forfeited their right to it This therefore shall be the first great argument or combination of inducements Infants receive many benefits by the susception of Baptism and therefore in charity and in duty we are to bring them to Baptism 1. The first effect of Baptism is That in it we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ offered and presented unto him In which certainly there is the same act of worship to God and the same blessing to the children of Christians as there was in presenting the first-born among the Jews For our children can be Gods own portion as well as theirs and as they presented the first-born to God and so acknowledged that God might have taken his life in Sacrifice as well as the Sacrifice of the Lamb or the Oblation of a beast yet when the right was confessed God gave him back again and took a Lamb in exchange or a pair of Doves So are our children presented to God as forfeit and God might take the forfeiture and not admit the babe to the Promises of Grace but when the presentation of the childe and our acknowledgement is made to God God takes the Lamb of the World in exchange and he hath paid our forfeiture and the children are holy unto the Lord And what hinders here cannot a creeple receive an alms at the Beautiful gate of the Temple unless he go thither himself Or cannot a gift be presented to God by the hands of the owners and the gift become holy and pleasing to God without its own consent The Parents have a portion of the possession Children are blessings and Gods gifts and the Fathers greatest wealth and therefore are to be given again to him In other things we give something to God of all that he gives us all we do not because our needs force us to retain the greater part and the less sanctifies the whole but our children must all be returned to God for we may love them and so may God too and they are the better our own by being made holy in their presentation whatsoever is given to God is holy every thing in its proportion and capacity a Lamb is holy when it becomes a Sacrifice and a Table is holy when it becomes an Altar and a House is holy when it becomes a Church and a man is holy when he is consecrated to be a Priest and so is every one that is dedicated to Religion these are holy persons the others are holy things and Infants are between both they have the sanctification that belongs to them the holiness that can be of a reasonable nature offer'd and destin'd to Gods service but not in that degree that is in an understanding choosing person Certain it is that Infants may be given to God and if they may be they must be for it is not here as in goods where we are permitted to use all or some and give what portion we please out of them but we cannot do our duty towards our children unless we give them wholly to God and offer them to his service and to his grace The first does honour to God the second does charity to the children The effects and real advantages will appear in the sequel in the mean time this Argument extends thus far that Children may be presented to God acceptably in order to his service And it was highly praeceptive when our blessed Saviour commanded that we should suffer little children to come to him and when they came they carried away a blessing along with them He was desirous they should partake of his merits he is not willing neither is it his Fathers will that any of these little ones should perish And therefore he dyed for them and loves and blessed them and so he will now if they be brought to him and presented as Candidates of the Religion and of the Resurrection Christ hath a blessing for our children but let them come to him that is be presented at the doors of the Church to the Sacrament of Adoption and Initiation for I know no other way for them to come 2. Children may be adopted into the Covenant of the Gospel that is made partakers of the Communion of Saints which is the second effect of Baptism parts of the Church members of Christs Mystical body and put into the order of eternal life Now concerning this it is certain the Church clearly hath power to do her offices in order to it The faithful can pray for all men they can do their piety to some persons with more regard and greater earnestness they can admit whom they please in their proper dispositions to a participation of all their holy prayers and communions and preachings and exhortations and if all this be a blessing and all this be the actions of our own charity who can hinder the Church of God from admitting Infants to the communion of all their pious offices which can do them benefit in their present capacity How this does necessarily infer Baptism I shall afterwards discourse * But for the present I enumerate That the blessings of Baptism are communicable to them they may be admitted into a fellowship of all the Prayers and Priviledges of the Church and the Communion of Saints in blessings and prayers and holy offices But that which is of greatest perswasion and convincing efficacy in this particular is That the children of the Church are as capable of the same Covenant as the children of the Jews But it was the same Covenant that Circumcision did consign a spiritual Covenant under a veil and now it is the same spiritual Covenant without the veil which is evident to him that considers it thus The words of the Covenant are these I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect I will multiply thee exceedingly Thou shalt be a father of many Nations Thy