Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	admit_v	baptism_n	child_n	2,681	5	5.7534	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75851	A modest reply humbly offer'd, as an answer to, and confutation of seven arguments collected and deliver'd by Mr. Samuel Lawrence, in a sermon preach'd at his meeting-house in Namptwich, Octob. 16th, 1691, whereby he would shew, that the infants of professing Christians ought to be baptized : with a seasonable word to my brethren of the baptized church / presented by the most unworthiest of her servants, S.A.	Acton, Samuel, d. 1740?; Lawrence, Samuel.	1692 (1692)	Wing A452aA; ESTC R203313	36,660	49

direct us in all things necessary and therefore to the Word they joyn their own Traditions for the rendring it a more compleat and perfect Rule the other accounts it Useless and therefore directs all for Instruction to the Dictates of the Light within Of both these I have only to say Lord deliver my Soul from coming into their Secrets But you and we being agreed in all things touching the Authority and Sufficiency of the Scriptures I presume from thence an equal Freedom in us to refer the Tryal of the things wherein we differ to the Determination of Holy Writ being firmly resolved for myself to abide by its Award sincerely desiring that nothing may pass for Truth but upon their Testimony Now I shall not take notice of any thing you offer in your Sermon preach'd from 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your children unclean but now are they holy before you come to state the Question 1. Because I would not have this Paper to swell into too great a Bulk 2. Because there is not any thing material but what I shall meet with under one or other of your Arguments shall therefore recite your Doctrine which was this Doctrine That the Seed of Professing Christians have a Right to Baptism and ought thereby to be admitted into the Church or Body of Christ Whether your Text doth preach the same Doctrine you do from it I question and conclude that there is no more a-kin between your Question stated and your Words rightly consider'd in their proper place then there would have been had you drawn the same Conclusion from the first words in Genesis which tells us That in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth as I trust hereafter will be made evident to every judicious and unprejudiced Reader You proceed and say Here I shall not undertake to produce all the Proof that is for it nor answer every Quibble that is brought against it but lay that Foundation which if of God standeth sure and if it stands the contrary must needs fall Ans That you have produced more Proof then the Scripture affords you for your Practice is plain and Scripture-Arguments that strongly make head against your Practice be by you accounted Quibbles is not strange but very strange it is that you see cause to query whether your Foundation be of God and yet dare lend a hand to support a sinking and falling Dagon The Idol could not stand before the Art even so Lord in this our day let Errour fall before thy Truth and help you so to discern the Sandiness of that Foundation upon which all Errour with that of Infant-Baptism is built as that you may better improve the Certainty of its Ruine then those biggotted Priests and blind Philistines did the Fall and Ruine of their adored Dagon 1 Sam. 5.3 4. I now come to your seven Arguments you offer as Proof and Evidence though reasonably we might have expected for Proof and Confirmation of a Doctrine of so great moment two or three Witnesses from Holy Scripture but knowing that no such Evidence is to be found there we shall weigh and allow of your Authority provided your Arguments are strongly concluded in and truly deduced from the Scriptures and because I would not in the least be thought to injure you in my Reply I shall at large recite your several Arguments and so well as I can with the help of some Collections endeavour the Confutation of them And you say in your First ARGUMENT 1. I argue from the Command of Christ Matth. 28.19.20 For 1. the Command is so general as to include not exclude Infants surely they will be allowed to be a considerable Part of the Nations 2. Christ doth here prescribe the way of gathering his Church and preserving it to the end of the World now his Church consists of Infants as well as grown Persons and both are to be dealt with according to that State As to grown Persons First teach them and baptize them as to Infants finding them Disciples baptize them in order to their being taught when capable of it 3. All Nations is set in Opposition to the Jewish Nation therefore as the Disciples would have understood what and whom Christ meant if he had said Go circumcise all Nations c. So and its observable that Baptism was of use amongst them though not a Sacrament before as Maimonides speaks That they baptized the Infant or little Stranger upon the knowledge of the House of Judgment i. e. on their desire in behalf of their Children 4. The Practice of the Apostles in Baptising whole Houshoulds is a plain Comment on the Text and shews how they understood it Acts 16.15.33 1 Cor. 1.16 5. Infants are Disciples Acts 15.10 together with their Parents therefore may be baptized if not Disciples of Man's making so neither was Paul yet of God's making who graciously accepts them and takes them into his Covenant If any object That such Disciples are meant as are capable of observing Christ's Command Ans It 's true as to grown Persons with whom the Apostles had most to do in gathering a Church out of the World to Christ but as the Proselites were first taught and then circumcised but there Children were first circumcised before they were taught so it may and ought to be here nothing in Christ's Commission gainsaying it First ANSWER Whether all that you have said here doth not directly tend to darken Knowledge I refer to your own Conscience and shall leave all wise men to judge when the Text is read and the order of it laid down Our Lord Jesus Christ after he had declared himself invested with absolute Power given him of the Father to be Soveraign Lord and supream Law-giver to the whole World through all Ge-Generations He saith as Mat. 28.19 20. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World This Command is so extensive as authorizes the Apostles of our Lord to take in by Baptism all Nations Discipled or so many of all Nations as should be made Disciples but how it includes one Infant that neither is made nor is capable as such of being made a Disciple I see not otherways than as Infants are a considerable part of all Nations and if therefore to be baptized then are all Nations to be baptized by the lump even Infidels Idolaters prophane and abominable persons as they are a part yea the greatest part of all Nations And this will as truly follow as the other if this Command may be understood without restriction but if not then the limitation must needs lye in the Word which says Teach or Disciple then neither the Infant nor prophane person can be admitted by this Text if the Order in which it is laid down be duly considered which

Evidence against you which speaks in the Nineteenth Article as follows The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful Men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same which strongly bespeaks the Church of Christ to be exclusive of Infants Further your grant that Children before Baptism belong to the Kingdom of Heaven doth call into question that part of the Church Catechism which teacheth her Catticuminies to say That in their Baptism they were made Members of Christ Children of God and Inheritors or Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven and if they are Members of the Church as you confess they belong to the Kingdom of Heaven is not your own practice as forreign when as in your baptizing any do tell the People that thereby that Child becomes a Member of the Church of God a goodly favour you do 'em indeed by Baptism you make them what it seems they were before and no more by your own Grant Again That your Conclusion is not true that saith Because little Children are of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore they are of the Church and ought to be admitted by Baptism is further evident in that there are many that shall be saved as have not the least shew of Right to a Place in and to the Priviledges of the Church of Christ of which Infants are some who have not fin'd actually against the Law of Nature and the rest are those Heathens who do live and walk up to that Light and Law of Nature which God hath placed in them who are not blest with the Gospel Light nor any Divine Revelation over and above the Light of Natural Conscience and surely some such there may be of whom the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 who do by Nature the things contain'd in the Law and with reference to such in all probability Christ spake saying Many shall come from the East and from the West meaning the most remote parts of the Earth and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out Matth. 8.11 12. If it be granted that there may be any such it 's evident the Kingdom of Heaven will be a Receptacle for them but who in the least can imagine that they have any right to Gospel Priviledges so that your Conclusion must needs fall A right to Heaven from this Text is granted them but it yields them not the least Evidence of a Right to a Church Relation and Priviledge So that I conceive all your pains in pleading from this Text vain and in all that you have said to be but like one that beateth the Air. A gallant Vapour brandishing a Sword that hath no Enemy to strike at 1 Cor. 9.26 You say the same Objections lye against their being saved as against their being baptized if they cannot actually believe Mark 16.16 Answer That Faith in Jesus Christ is made the Condition on which all Men must be saved to whom the Gospel either was is or ever shall be preached is certain yet as the Gospel never was appointed to be preached to Infants as such neither is it by you nor any Man in this day so it is not required any where of them to believe in order to their bring saved If it be who required it and where And since their natural Capacities is such as renders the work of Believing impossible to them without a Miracle whose Faith shall save them their immediate Parents nay rather the Faith of our remote Father to wit Adam as his Unbelief at first destroyed them so in likelyhood his Faith should interess them in the Grace of Eternal Life but we say the Faith of neither for the Faith and Righteousness of all believing Parents in the World considered in one will not be of Merit sufficient to save one Victim Ezek. 14.14 No this Benefit flows purely from the Fountain of all Grace and is conveyed to them by another Stream to wit God's free and full imputing the Righteousness of Christ the second Adam by whose Righteousness Life and Meritorious Death they are inverted with a Justification unto Life Eternal Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all Men unto Justification of Life Were it so that the Faith of Parents did intitle their Children to Salvation how unworthily would it reflect upon our Lord Jesus as if he could not save Innocent Babes without their Parents believing and strongly conclude God to be more prone to Severity then Mercy in saving a very few i. e. the Children of believing Parents and Eternally damns all the rest from their Mothers Womb for what they could not help viz. a remote Fathers sinning and an immediate Fathers not believing but how contrary is this to that God whose Mercies are over all his Works Psalm 145.8 9. So that it 's evident the Salvation of dying Infants is sure though they believe not in the sence of that Text Mark 16.16 or with that Faith which alone qualifies a Person for Baptism So I come to your Fifth ARGUMENT The Children of Believers are said to be holy this is plainly set down in the Text which cannot be meant are Legitimate not Bastards for that could not be accounted if both the Parents had been Unbelievers neither was that the Question which the Apostle here handles Neither can it be understood absolutely of real holiness for then Parents could convey Grace to their Children and a gracious Man could not have graceless Children but it must be meant of foederal Holiness as they who were born of the Jews were Jews not common and unclean as Heathen but accounted as in the Church and within the Covenant so that you that are born of Christians are to be accounted Christians therefore have a right to the Priviledges of Christians 2. Scripture doth explain and confirm this Acts 10.15 28. and Rom. 11.16 if the Root be holy so are the Branches And it 's very observable that of the little that 's spoke of the case of Children in the New Testament all is for it and not one word against it Fifth ANSWER That the Children of Believers are holy we believe and that their Holiness is founded upon a better Basis than the Faith of their immediate Parents and also that it is different from that of their Parents and such a Holiness as is so far from inrighting them to Baptism as that till they come to sin it doth much rather exempt them For if Baptism be a Sign that signifies to all that submit to it the Remission of Sins as Scripture sufficiently shews Acts 2.38 and Mark 1.4 c. then I pray of what use can Baptism be to those who are under no actual Commission of Sin and as such

same Right as their Males besides by vertue of the Institution such were to receive Circumcision as you will have much ado to believe were interested in the Covenant to instance only in Ishmael and Esau and the words of the Apostle that saith All are not Israel that are of Israel Abraham's whole Male natural Seed must needs be circumcised yet who will imagine that the numerous Issue proceeding from him were so interested in the Covenant as Abraham and the Faithful were neither was any thing of Duty required as a necessary Prerequisite to qualifie Abraham's Seed for Circumcision more than a descending lineally from him a being his Children according to the Flesh qualified them for and interested them in the Blessing of the Covenant of Circumcision which are inferior to the Blessings of the new Covenant and Gospel Ministration So that it 's evident the carnal Seed of Believers can obtain no greater Priviledge than the Seed of Abraham did by the Covenant of Circumcision whose Priviledge reached not to an Interest in Gospel-Blessings or the New Covenant unless they had obtained that Right for themselves by believing otherwise as one saith well they had no more Right to them by their natural descent from Abraham than Ishmael had in their Covenant of Peculiarity And as of old Circumcision was not to be administred to any but those appointed by the express Will and positive Law of God neither ought Baptism now nor can any man conclude from a good ground for Infant-Baptism till as good Authority be produced for it as they had of old for circumcising the Males of Israel You add further Doubtless if it had not been so the believing Jews would have debated with the Apostles about it c. Ans I confess had they not learned better Manners and been of much a better Temper than many in our days they would not only have debated but quarreled with them as some do thrusting away Truth as a Troubler of their Coasts as the Gadarenes did Christ but the Believers of old learned Christ to better ends than to maintain unnecessary Debates with the Apostles being satisfied from the nature of the Gospel Ministration that there was no room for Controversies in Christ's changing the Subject as well as the Ceremony and you may see that Point as fully decided and resolved as they did would you rid your mind of Prejudice and with a single Eye look into the Commission where Christ bids them to make Disciples and baptize them and into the general Practice of the Apostles which did perfectly correspond with the Command which Command was made the Rule of their Proceedings and not the demolish'd form of the Jewish Church And Christ in faithfulness to his Church and in mercy to little Infants hath as evidently changed the Subject as the Sign Mark 16.15 16. which in conjunction with the general Practice of the Apostles in that they never baptized one Infant puts the thing out of doubt Thus I hope your three topping Arguments are fully answered which you say are equivolent to an express Command an Assertion so impudent that I pray God it may not be laid to your Charge for there is not any thing said in all of them but what may bespeak you to need that some one teach you which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God Hebr. 5.12 And now Brethren I hope as wise men you will judge and seriously consider what is said and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 I now come to your Argument of lesser magnitude Fourth ARGUMENT Little Children belong to the Kingdom of Heaven therefore are of the Church and ought not to be excluded but admitted by Baptism Matth. 19.14 They how little soever have an interest in the Priviledges of the Gospel Dispensation as well as they had under the Law formerly and accordingly are as capable of Eternal Blessedness in Heaven and the same Objections lye against their being saved as against their being baptized viz. That they cannot actually believe Mark 16.16 If any object Christ means Children in Humility not in Age as he doth Matth. 18.2 3. Answer That cannot be so understood here because he here speaks of such as were brought unto him and he took into his Arms. Besides it would not then be a sufficient ground for the check he gives his Disciples Objection But he did not baptize them Answer We do not know that he baptized any He did that which was greater and that which makes them qualified Subjects for Baptism for grant to them a Church Relation and Baptism will follow upon it if one stands good the other will and that is what we plead for from this Text. Fourth ANSWER That little Children as such belong unto the Kingdom of Heaven we discent not from you one jot in this Truth for since Christ hath said that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven we joyfully and stedfastly believe the certainty of it and that little Children are of the Church of God i e. the Universal and Invisible Church which contains all the Elect of God known and unknown known unto us and that to the most remote Corners of the Earth in which blessed state they abide though their Parents may suffer a change of state by sin yet that alters not the state of Children nor nothing can till by their voluntary departure from God in choosing sinful ways they destroy themselves To prove Infants as such in a visible state of Salvation we conceive not difficult the words of Christ strongly concluding it But if by Church you mean the visible Church of Christ and do say That because little Children are of the Kingdom of Heaven that therefore they are of the visible Church as that most be intended because of your pleading for admission for them then I conceive your Conclusion to be most untrue 1. Because to say the Fleshly Seed of Believers are born within the Pale and Members of the Church of Christ is a Doctrine Forreign to that of the Gospel 2. Because such a Doctrine in a great measure destroys the right end of Baptism which is to make them Members of it that are not Acts 2.41 and 47. and not to bring them into the Church that are in it already 3. Because Infants as such are not capable and fit matter to make right Members of the Church of Christ under the Gospel For says the Apostle writing to Church Members Ye also as lively Stones are built up a Spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 which Infants can neither be nor do 4. To say Infants are Members of the visible Church is incongruous to all Definitions that ever I met with of a Gospel Church as I might shew by some of your own I forbear to name ours as that which may not pass with you for currant therefore shall assign only that of the Church of England as an

because there is no light in them Isai 8.20 To do more then he hath required or to do one thing that is not required for another that is will be found in a Day of Tryal equally Abominable with a not doing his Requirements at all It 's certain all Persons and Things shall be pronounced good or bad as they have or have not agreed with this perfect Law of GOD's Word all Decrees of Councils all Doctrines of Men all Controversies in Religion must be brought to the Test and abide the Award and Determination thereof Now that I may not detain you here let me humbly and earnestly beg three things of you 1. That you will pass Judgment upon what is commended to your view in the Arguments for with the Answer and Arguments against Infant-Baptism according as they bear proportion to GOD's Sacred Word and not as they accord with far-fetcht Consequences and doubtful Conclusions which at best in Matters of Worship can prove but one uncertain Medium and forged Warrant which through the unwearied Industry of some skilful Artificers is made fatal to many even such who do either affect Art above Truth or such who have not skill to discern and so become no less deceived then certain Country Peasants in some former Troubles in France of whose Folly * Epistle to Jesephus one tell us They attempting and entring into a City not far from them and lighting into an Apothecary's Shop furnisht with all kind of Drugs and Dainties and being allured by the pleasant Odours and delight of the Confections they tasted and supposing all to be of the same kind took and swallow'd down every thing whereupon some fell sick of Feavers some grew Frenzy and many lost their Lives to please their Appetites at least he that scap'd best gave occasion of Laughter to the Lookers on What use I shall make of this shall be only to put you in mind that it is recorded for the eternal Commendation of the noble Bereans That they would not receive any thing though offered by a Paul until by searching the Scriptures they had found whether those things he taught were so or no. 2. In reading of these Lines that you would lay aside all Prejudice that may possess your Minds either against the Person or Subject else the Mind by it will be rendred utterly uncapable of making right Judgment or receiving Truth though it presents itself with never so much Plainness and Evidence Prejudice was one if not the principal Cause why the Jews rejected CHRIST 3. Having thus discharg'd your Minds of what may hinder your Profit be earnest with GOD in Prayer to help you rightly to discern between the Mystery of Godliness the Iniquity that is contain'd and detected in the Scriptures and then I trust the Plainness of Dress in which these Lines appear will not be of considerable Disadvantages to the Truths contain'd therein for the more false any thing is the more artificially it had need to be set off and adorned A blear'd Eye loves not to look on the Sun Art and Humane Eloquence may tickle the Ear and well-pollish'd Discourses may affect the Fancy and yet prove but a mear Sound of Words and empty Husks remembring it's said of Lacon Hearing a Nightingale sing by the briskness of its Warbling and delicate Notes and the clearness and quavering Cadency of its Voyce judg'd it a good Prey but when he found and saw it to be of so small a Size he disdainfully left it and said Thou art a Voyce and nothing else Therefore where the Evidence of Truth appears refuse it not because offer'd in and presented under the Disadvantage of an unpollish'd Style but let the Reason of what is said be considered And that the LORD may give you Vnderstanding shall be the Prayer of him that wisheth you present and eternal Peace from GOD the Father through our LORD JESVS CHRIST in whom though the Vnworthiest of his Servants I am yours S. A. A Modest Reply TO Mr SAMVEL LAWRENCE HIS Seven Arguments FOR Admitting the Infants of Professing Christians into the CHURCH of CHRIST by Baptism deliver'd in a SERMON by him preach'd in Namptwich Octob. 18th 1691. AS it may be safely concluded that the great Interest of Man's present Peace and eternal Felicity is eminently concern'd in Religion and Godliness even so all true Religion is taught and takes its Being only from Divine Revelation which God in former Ages and divers manners gave out until the Knowledge of his Will was most perfectly reveal'd in and by his Son and our Saviour Heb. 1.1 2. who in Faithfulness to his Church discharged the Trust committed to him ceasing not to make known to the least Jot and Tittle every thing which he receiv'd or heard of the Father Joh. 15.15 He alone being found worthy to set up a Standard and to become a Law-giver and Statute-maker unto all Generations in things partaining to the Worship of God who no sooner had transmitted the Mind of Heaven to the Children of Men by a sure and perfect Law but it passes the Royal Assent he fixes the Seal of his own most precious Blood unto it for its Confirmation and then by the Father is advanced to the highest Dignity and Glory as a convincing Evidence not only of his Son's Faithfulness but the Purity and Perfection of that Law which he hath enacted as the only Mediator to the end Man should be perfect in the whole Will of God And in further Testimony thereof how great hath Heaven's care been throughout all Ages in preserving the Scriptures clean from those Corruptions and Errours which the Heart of Man tho' learn'd if unsanctied is too apt to dote on and cleave unto it is no less then wonderful to consider in whose hands the Sacred Scriptures in past Ages have been lodged and by whom they have been handed down to us that they have yet strength so loudly to bear Witness against Errours entertained with such Fondness and maintain'd with such Heat as of late hath appeared particularly in the Defence of that Unscriptural Practice of Infant Baptism and that there is not yet so much as one Word to be produced as their Warrant in doing what they have so earnestly contended for strongly argue that God hath marvelously over-ruled the Heart and Hands of all heretofore concern'd in that blessed Work of Translating the Scriptures into a Language known and understood by every one of us And as to the Sufficiency of Scripture as it contains all things necessary to be believed known or done either for Salvation or Church Communion I know not that what is said in the sixth Article of the Church of England is forreign to the Judgment of any Professing Christian saving those of the Papal Communion and some few of late sprung up who through Temptation and the Delusion of their own Hearts have rejected the Word as it is contain'd in the Scriptures of Truth as Useless the one accounts it insufficient to

is thus 1. Our Lord Jesus commands them to go to all Nations 2. To teach all Nations or Disciple them 3. That they baptize such so taught or Discipled 4. That they shall further Teach and Instruct such baptized Disciples to observe all other things that Christ hath commanded Now that this and no less than this is intended here will appear with great Evidence from the Consent of such as dissent from us And therefore Mr. Baxter speaking of this Text shews the several Work and Duty of the Apostles in their several Places and Orders who tells us in his second Disputation of Right to Sacraments Pag. 149 150 Their 1. Task is to make Disciples which Mark calls Believers 2. Their work is to baptize them whereunto is annexed the Promise of Salvation 3. Their work is to teach them all other things which are after to be learned in the School of Christ Further saith he To contemn this Order is to contemn all Rules of Order for where can we expect to find it if not here I profess my Conscience is fully satisfied from this Text that it is one sort of Faith even Saving-Faith that must go before Baptism the profession whereof the Minister must expect And in his Poor Man's Family-Book pag. 168. saith The Church never knew any Baptism but such as was joyned with a present profession of present Faith Repentance and Renunciation of the Devil the World and the Flesh and a total devotedness to God and Christ with more to this purpose And the Author of the Annotations began by Mr. Poole upon this Text expresly saith I cannot be of their mind who think persons may be baptized before they be taught we want Presidents of any such Baptisms in the Scripture tho' indeed we find Presidents of persons baptized who had but a small degree of knowledge of the Gospel but it should seem that they were all taught and then baptized Now what this Author saith farther with reference to Infant-Baptism because they are a part of all Nations I leave as that which may justly evidence him guilty of Self-Contradiction and Inconsistence You add further That Christ is here prescribing a way to gather his Church and of preserving it to the Worlds end and That the Church consists of Infants as well as grown persons Answ As to the first we grant that Christ here is prescribing a way of gathering his Church but that his Church was made up of Infants as well as grown persons professing Believers is a bold Assertion and a meer Imposition upon your Auditory having not the least Light or Evidence nor being able to give so much as one Instance of any one Infant that was ever admitted by any of the Apostles a Member of any Church by Baptism in their days Could you do this you would do something to purpose but to undertake this Task would be to labour under an utter Impossibility knowing the old Maxim that says That which appears not is not You further say Had Christ said Go circumcise all Nations the Disciples would have understood what and whom he meant Answ It seems then in your Apprehension the Apostles were ignorant of what Christ meant and what they did in pursuance to his Command they did at a venture Is not this peevish Reasoning and a manifest impeaching Christ and his Disciples Was Christ so dark and unintelligible in what he commanded them that they could not apprehend him Is not Go teach and baptize all Nations as easie to be understood as Go circumcise every Male at eight days old Surely they did understand Christ and you may if you will not put out your own Eyes which I entreat you to have a care of lest continuing to preach up and practise things contrary too or at least not agreeable with the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles you become culpable and so liable to that Anathema pronounc'd against all tho' an Angel from Heaven that shall preach another Gospel Gal. 1.8 And Maimonides tells you no more than what we allow you That the Jews of old did baptize the Proselyte and little Stranger but in that they did not use Baptism as a Sacrament as you your self acknowledge is a Tradition of the superstitious Jews an Authority sufficient to warrant you in your sprinkling Infants as a Gospel Ordinance Sure Sir this your Practice as well as some of their Traditions bespeaks Christ's Command to be void and of none effect and in plain terms gives the Lye to Mr. Baxter and more in their Comments upon the Commission of Christ For Mr. G. Lawson in his Magna Charta dedicated to Hen. B. of London pag. 27 28. tells us That the word Teach before baptizing imports a teaching with success so as to cause the persons taught to learn i. e. to receive their Doctrin understand it approve it be convinced of the Truth of it and be converted by it so far as to be made Christians And so the Apostles understood Christ as is evident by their whole practise and if you dare not say that they were mistaken in the mind of Christ I am sorry you give me occasion to tell you that you are and as a Friend I advise you to correct the mistake you are under and act for time to come more conformably to Christ's Doct●in and his Apostles Practice But you further urge The practice of the Apostles in baptizing whole Housholds for your practice in baptizing Infants Answ That Housholds was baptized we grant but that Infants was in those Houses is more than you can prove and the best ground you have for your Practice here is Probability there may be and may not be is too slight a Ground to build so great an Ordinance upon as Baptism We could give you an account of as many Housholds in this County if not in this Town that are baptized and that have no Children in them as you read of in the Gospel but admit there were Children which remains for you to prove yet it follows not that they were baptized it being usual in Scripture to take a part for the whole as 1 Sam. 1.21 saith All the House went up to offer the yearly Sacrifice yea the 22 23. Verses say expresly That Hannah and her Child Samuel went not up yet all the House So Luke 2.1 In those days went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed yet who will understand any other part of the World than that within his own Dominions and within the bounds of his own Territories yet all the world And so in many other places But to speak of these Housholds in particular will if I mistake not turn your own Artillery against you which we shall do in a few words and 1. To the Houshold of Lydia 'T is said she and her Household was baptized Acts 16.15 but no ground to conclude that there were any Infants there but a fair ground to suspect the contrary and that she might

Bonds and Contracts c. But I pray what is it that Baptism confirms ratifies and makes sure unto Children more than what is through Grace made sure to them to wit Eternal Life by Jesus Christ without Baptism 'T is true by Faith in Baptism we put to our Seal but there is something else which God annexeth as his Seal whereby he sealeth up Believers the alone Children of Abraham and confirms them in the sure hope and expectation of Eternal Life viz. the Holy Spirit Ephes 1.13 and Chap. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of Redemption Many may be baptized that are not of the Seed promised to Abraham as many such heretofore have been to instance only in Judas Simon Magus and the foolish Virgins but the Holy Spirit is given to none as a Seal but such who by believing are not Bastards but the true Sons of Abraham Furthermore if you consider the nature and scope of the Covenant made with Abraham it must needs make void your manner of arguing because it 's said to Abraham and his Seed Therefore say you to us and our seed But now consider are each of you by this Covenant made the Father of a blessed Seed as Abraham was the Father of the Faithful Or can you claim the Promise for your selves and your Seed according to the Tenure of Abraham's Covenant and as he might know but we must rest in a relation to him as Children and so receive his Blessings i. e. the Blessings promised to him for his Seed and that by means of our own Faith and for our selves alone Believers because they are Abraham's Seed are blessed with faithful Abraham Gal. 3.9 And if we are Christ's then are we Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise ver 29. So much to the Covenant and its Seal You add The Promise is to you and your Children Acts 2.39 Ans If by Promise you mean the Remission of Sin and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost spoken of in v. 38. we are of your mind That they belong to every penitent and believing Jew Even so to every penitent and believing Gentile the Wall of Partition being now taken down is this Grace extended as is plain in the close of the Verse Even to as many i. e. Jews or Gentiles as the Lord our God shall call But doth it follow hence that any person ought to be baptized before Repentance whereas it is our being renewed by Repentance and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that evidenceth our Right to the Grace promised and Baptism is prescribed to be performed as a Duty by such for the obtaining the Grace promised But if you say it doth follow I demand why John did treat any of the natural Offspring of Abraham so roughly as he seems to do calling them a Brood of Vipers and as such rejected them requiring them to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Mat. 3.7 8 9. And doth not Acts 2.38 as plainly say Repent and be baptized Is not therefore to baptize any without the least shew of Repentance in the Subject to invert the Order of the Holy Ghost it being certain that you and your Children in the 39th Verse is not so properly you and your Infant as you and your Posterity I wish it were not to be said of you in this case as Stephen speaks of some Jews in another Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Acts 7.51 You proceed telling us That God dealt thus with Man in all Ages in the Covenant of Works with Adam in the Old Testament with the Patriarchs or Fathers and can we think He hath altered his Methods What Evidence of that Ans That the Transactions of God with his People and their Seed in all Ages hath been in a Covenant-way and will be so to the end of the World and that our Seed is interested in the Grace of the same Covenant that Adam and the Fathers were in all Generations God hath not altered his methods at all with respect to the Covenant he hath made which is unalterable and everlasting as David saith 2 Sam. 23.5 As you had an Interest in the Covenant of Grace so have your Infant-seed but should they live to forfeit their Interest in that Grace by actual Transgression as you and I have done may not God direct to the use of such Mediums as Faith Repentance and Obedience are for the Sinner's Recovery and give out such Laws and Ordinances as is consistent with his own Grace and Wisdom upon his dissolving of one Church Frame and erecting another without the Sinner's controul You say Children are a part of their Parents and of the same Condition with them c. Ans If this pass for right Reason with you it will not so with me neither will it at another turn pass for good sence with you We grant that Children are of the same nature humane with their Parents Bone of their Bone and Flesh of their Flesh but not alwaies of the same state with their Parents What think you Was Cain of the same Condition with Adam Ishmael with Abraham Esau with Isaac Absalom with David Manasseh and Amon with Hezekiah or good Hezekiah with wicked Ahaz or good Josiah with his wicked Father Amon or those Children of Israel who enter'd and possessed the promised Canaan with their wicked Father whose Carcasses for their Sin fell in the Wilderness How directly opposite is this your beloved Notion to that Rule of perfect Righteousness and Equity which God hath laid down in that 18th of Ezekiel wherein he attesteth that all Souls are his as v. 4. and that the soul of the Son shall not dye for the sin of the Father intimating that the Father by becoming a wicked Apostate and abominable Idolater may change his own State and forfeit his own Interest in the Covenant but thereby shall not weaken his Childs Interest in the Covenant which abideth firm unto Eternal Life notwithstanding any Sin in the Father nothing can ruin that but the Child 's own Disobedience as the whole Chapter sheweth Nay if the good and happy estate of Infants depends so much upon the believing of mediate Parents is not the Salvation of such Infants rather to be imputed to their Parents believing than to Christ in dying But this your way is not God's way for God claims a Right to and a Propriety in the Children of an Apostate Israelite as well as the Children of his faithful Servants which could not be should the Covenant-Interest of Children be suspended upon the defection of their immediate Parents but so it is Ezek 16.20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter that thou hast slain my Children You add That the thing signified belongs unto