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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85020	The infants advocate of circumcision on Jewish and baptisme on Christian children. By Thomas Fuller, B.D.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.	1653 (1653)	Wing F2447; Thomason E1431_1; ESTC R202071	87,089	272

reductively Circumcised It follows by whom it was administred this generally was the master of the family Abraham Circumcised Isaac Gen. 21. 4. As for Zipporahs Circumcising her sons Exod 4. 25. in a case of extremity and her husbands indisposition it was an irregular act not to be drawn into precedent but to be recounted amongst those which when performed are valid but ought not to be performed Come we now to the time When eighth day Here I will not search with some for a secret sanctity in the Number of eight as consisting of seven the Embleme of Perfection with the Addition of one that is Intirenesse lest our Curiosity reap what Gods wisdom never sowed therein The plain reason is this Before the eighth day a child was not conceived to be consolidated flesh but till then in the bloud of the mother And for the same cause when a bullock sheep or goat was brought forth Levit. 22. 27. Then it shall be seven dayes under the dam and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Quest. What became of the souls of such infants who died before the eighth day and so wanted Circumcision Answ They wanted not Circumcision For want is the absence of that which ought to be had now there was no necessity of because no command for their Circumcision before that time God the Grand Law-giver though tying others is not tyed himself to his Law But can and no doubt did give spiritual grace to many infants chiefly if children of believing Parents dying in their non-age of their non-age before the eighth day and incapacity of the sign of Circumcision He who Rom. 4. 17. calleth things which are not as if they were can call children which are but are not circumcised as if they were circumcised And although properly amongst men they were not named till the eighth day Luke 2. 21. Yet such infants nameless on earth might Phil. 4. 3. have their names writte● in the book of life An instance we have hereof plain and pregnant to such who read the place without prejudice in Davids child 2 Sam. 12. 18. And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died That is seventh day à nativitate from the birth thereof as Tremelius expoundeth it the more probably because no mention is made of any name imposed upon it This child besides the natural stain of original corruption had also the personal blemish of adulterous extraction And yet how confident David was of the final happinesse thereof appears by this expression vers 22. I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Let none strangle the life of so comfortable a passage with too narrow an interpretation thereof as if nothing therein were imported more then that David should die as well as his child This had been but cold comfort unto him and would never have invited him to such cheerfulness of spirit so freely to have refreshed himself Whose joy was founded on the comfortable assurance of his childs final happinesse and that one day they should both meet in Heaven together It remaineth that we treat of the punishment on the refusers of Circumcision expressed in these words Gen. 17. 14. That soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my covenant A threatning capable of three several sences 1. Severe That is by the sword of Ecclesiastical censures They shall be cut off from the visible congregation they shall most justly as the blind man was injuriously John 9. 33. be cast out of the Synagogue not to be restored unto it without their solemn and sincere repentance Parallel to S. Pauls expression Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even cut off that trouble you Though both phrases by some Divines be expounded in a sence 2. Severer That is the Magistrate shall cut them off with the sword of Justice and as Capital offenders they shall be put to Death In this sence God had last used the same words Gen. 9. 11. neither shall all flesh be cut off any more that is their lives shall no more be taken away by an universal destruction 3. Severest That is they shall be cut off from the congregation of the righteous by a final perdition of soul and body in Hell-fire These three interpretations do not crosse but crown one another being no contradiction unto but a gradation one above another The Refuser of Circumcision first shall be cut off by excommunication that not causing his amendment shall be cut off by the Magistrate and the pain and shame of temporal death not reclaiming him he shall be cut off with Eternal Damnation Quest Here is a heavy punishment indeed But who is the person on whom it is to be inflicted It was the Disciples question to our Saviour John 9. 2. Who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind But here the question will be who shall be punished this child or his parents seeing betwixt both Circumcision is neglected Answ First negatively surely not the child for it is said He hath broken my Covenant The Covenant may be said to be broken on him but not by him being purely passive therein Were the child sensible of the benefit by the having dammage by the loosing thereof and might it but borrow a tongue of the standers by never was Rachel more impatient for children then this child would be importunate for Circumcision Give me Circumcision or else I dye Now positively that the Penalty fals not on the child but on the parent plainly appears by Gods proceedings Exod. 4. 24. When he sought to kill Moses and not his children for being uncircumcised However if a child left uncircumcised by his Parents neglect afterwards arrive at mans estate and pertinaciously persist in the contempt of Circumcision he equally entitleth himself to the fault and is also liable to the punishment in my text Quest Seeing so sharp and severe the penalty how came that suspension of Circumcision full forty years in the wilderness Josh 5. 7 to be connived at God not only not punishing but for ought appears in Scripture not so much as reproving the same Answ In the first place I cannot approve the answer of S. Hierom and others affirming that Circumcision was given to difference and distinguish the Jews from other Nations and seeing no Nations were near them during their travel in the desolate wildernesse Circumcision was therefore purposely omitted For beside that sundry people and particularly the Amalekites dwelt in the desart Circumcision was principally ordained not to be a badge of distinction but a Seal of the consecration of the Jews unto God More probable therefore it is that because the Jews during that fourty years were alwayes though not actually moving disposed to move at a minutes warning when ever they received orders from the removing of the Pillar God the Lawgiver dispensed with them to defer Circumcision till they were fixed

husband possibly all this might not pacifie her minde and though such a scruple be but a mote in it self yet might it prove painful in so tender a place as conscience the eye of the soul is How thankful therefore ought Christian women to be to Gods goodnesse expresly admitting them to Baptism and having equal right with men in that Sacrament These three forenamed circumstantial differences between Circumcision and Baptism are not of such consequence as to disessential them or to make them distinct Sacraments both remaining the same in effect those accidental variations notwithstanding For the like may be observed between the Passeover and the Lords Supper and those alterations also for the benefit and behoof of Christians the later being both cheaper in price and freer in time then the former In the Passeover a lamb was offered which many Christians such is their poverty cannot provide for themselves and rich men such is their covetousnesse will not provide for others It is therefore commuted in the Lords Supper into a bit of bread and sip of wine which on easier rates may be obtained Freer in time The Passeover was but once a year Exod. 12. 6. on the fourteenth day of the first moneth In the Lords Supper we are left at large stinted to no time 1 Cor. 11. 25. Do ye this as oft as ye drink it we may take it for food or for physick when ill to remove when well to prevent diseases once a moneth once a week if we wil always provided that the frequent repetition of it hinder not the solemn preparation for it But to return to Baptism that it succee●● to all essentials of Circumcision is proved by these Arguments Either Baptism succeeds to the Sacrament of Circumcision or else some other Ordinance doth succeed or else nothing at all remains in lieu thereof But that Sacrament root and branch totally extinguished in Gods Church But nothing else succeeds Circumcision and that Sacrament is not abolished but still vertually extant Therefore Baptism succeeds in the place of Circumcision The Major we presume of unquestionable truth where the distribution is uncapable of any other member therein For the first part of the Minor if any other heir besides Baptism can be found out let our Adversaries in this controversie assign it What is the name or the sons name thereof if they can tell surely no such successor to Circumcision can be produced Now to maintain that Circumcision died issueless and left no ordinance behind it of Divine institution to inherit the power and place thereof in the Church is what none ever defende●● For seeing Sacraments are the Pillars of the Church supporting the whole fabrick thereof how much would it weaken the structure totally to take away one pillar without substituting another in the place thereof We proceed to a second Argument after this manner If all such graces confer'd on Gods children in Circumcision formerly are now bestowed on them in Baptism Then notwithstanding some accidental differences Baptism succeeds to the essentials of Circumcision But all graces formerly confer'd in Circumon are now bestowed in Baptism Therefore Baptism succeeds the essentials of Circumcision The minor which alone is questionable may easily be proved Graces in Circumcision are comprised in that expression Gen. 17. 7. To be a God unto thee whereof largely before and the same is performed in Baptism whein God solemnly contracts with his servants to receive them into his Covenant and conveyeth unto them Grace necessary for their Salvation But what need we more Reasons when the very words of S. Paul Col. 2. 11 12. attest the same In whom also ye are Circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ buried with him in Baptism Christians are here said by Baptism to be spiritually Circumcised and by the same proportion the believing Jews may be said by Circumcision to be spiritually Baptized such the affinity or rather the essential samenesse betwixt these two Sacraments Thus Solomon saith Eccles 1. 4. One generation passeth away and another generation cometh but the earth remaineth for ever So one Sacrament of Initiation Circumcision passeth away and another Baptism cometh One Sacrament of Confirmation the Passeover passeth away and another Sacrament the Lords Supper cometh But the Church remaineth for ever Ob. Baptism cannot succeed to Circumcision because what succeedeth must come after in time when its predecessor is departed But Baptism for some years went abreast with Circumcision both were set a foot together in Church practice For Baptism was instituted in our Saviours life time used by his Disciples John 4. 2. to the Jews and enjoyned immediately after Christs Ascension Mat. 28. 19. to be practised upon all Nations Now Circumcision held in force many years after see in Timothy a Jew by the half bloud Acts 16. 3. was Circumcised by Paul himself Wherefore Baptism contemporary ●●th Circumcision could not be successour unto it Answ It is confest that for some years Circumcision remained in the Church after Baptism was ordained Have we not often seen the Moon shining in Heaven even after the Sun some hours hath been risen therein But then she shines dully and dimly with a faint and feeble light as conscious to her self of usurpation and guilty of intrusion to the territories and dominion of the Sun the Moon being only made to rule the night So may I say there was a weak and wan appearance of Circumcision in the Christian Church after Baptism was ordained and that for these two reasons First It was continued some time in the Church for the more decent expiring thereof God would not have that Sacrament which had lived so long in lustre dye in shame And therefore it was thought fit that Circumcision as it began on a good man so it should expire on a gratious Saint Abraham being the first and Timothy the last whom we find Circumcised in Scripture Secondly God foreseeing what an advantage Satan might take if his Church were left Sacramentless to assault the same in the interval of the going out of the one and coming in of the other as Ahab was wounded 1 Kings 22. 34. in the naked place betwixt the joynts of his harness would have his Sacraments rather then they should fall short one lap and fold over the other that both should be in being at once Probably had another government of the Church been prepared and fitted yea and set up rather two together then none at all before the old one was demolished profanenesse and damnable heresies which we now behold and bemoan had not made their progress so fast and so far into the English Nation The result of all is this Though Circumcision did for some time rather languish then live after the institution of Baptism and for the Reasons aforesaid was continued in the Church used on Timothy not so much to sanctifie him as to satisfie his