onely in manners and morality for that Heathens did and 't is strange even amazing what rules Plutarch and Aristotle c. give for this But this admonition of the Lord is Christianorum proprium saith he and implies a training them up in ver â pietate ver â religione ver â Dei cognitione doctrinam coelestem in liberorum animos semper instillando In true Religion and the knowledge and worship of God 2. Pregnant presidents 1. Of Catechizert Without doubt all the Patriarchs before Moses were such for there being till Moses no written Word of God the mind of God was undoubtedly conveighed from Fathers to children by tradition and as undoubtedly through the diligence of some parents and the neglect of others in this duty the true knowledge of God continued in Seths and Noahs and Sems and Abrahams families whiles most of the rest turned Heathens and Idolaters Concerning Abraham the Scripture is expresse Gen. 18. 19 I know Abraham saith God that bre will command his children and his houshold after him c. q. d. I know Abraham so well that of all men he will not neglect it David was so see how he catechizeth Solomon his son 1 Kin. 2. 2 3. 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing minde c. So useful a way it was that he invites others also to learn of him Ps 34. 11. the Catechisme is more large Prov. 4. 4. c. Bathshebs also the mother who took no lesse pains with Solomon as appears from his own mouth Prov. 31. 1. The Apostle Paul thought it not more beneath him to give milk to babes i. e. to instruct ignorant and weak Christians in plain Catechism grounds of Religion more then to speak wisdome i. e. higher truths among knowing and judicious Christians 1 Cor. 3. 1 2. whom he calls perfect This also in 2 Tim. 1. 5. and 3. 15. compared is the special commendation of Lois and Eunice Afterwards it became a special office in the Church to be a Catechist ut suprà 2. Of catechized Thus it is most likely Henoch holy Henoch that walked with God and whom God so gloriously translated to himself was thus instructed and this appears from his very name which is taken from the word in my Text Chanak and signifies catechized or instructed Likely Abel was so before him Concerning Solomon it is clear before Theophilus whom the Spirit of God honours so far as to admit him to be the first person to whom any portion of Scripture was dedicated was thus catechized in the History of the Gospel Luke 1. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So was Apollos to whom this commendation is given that he was a man mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18. 25. he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul himself was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel Acts 22. 3. a great Jewish Doctour Timothy is commended that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a suckling he had known the Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. 15. Nay what shall we say when our Saviour himself condescends to be catechized for so divers interpret his hearing the Doctours and asking them questions which was the way of their training youth and 't is likely so Paul was bred at the feet of Gamaliel What famous Fathers were Catechumeni I have in part shewn before To whom let me adde Arnobius And Luther professeth though he were a studied Divine yet he was beholden to Catechisme 3. Demonstrative Arguments The first is in this Syllogisme Reason 1. If there be a way wherein children must goe and they cannot without being catechized know that way then it is the duty of those that have charge of them so to catechize them But there is a way wherein they ought to go and they cannot know this way without catechizing c. First that children in their tenderest years have a way in which they should goe a duty belonging to their age is clear 1. To God In that God requires them to remember their Creatour in the dayes of their youth Eccles 12. 1 And the persons spoken to are thâ—se whose vain courses the wise man tarâ—ly reprehends in the clause of the former chapter Where he mindes children and young men alike of the sicklenesse of those buds and blossomes of their prime childhood saith he and youth are vanity ch 11. 10. Hence God commends Timothy for having learned the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a sucking child 2 Tim. 3. 15. Solomon was instructed very young for Josephus saith he was but fourteen years old others but twelve when he began to reign and his parents had catechized him before that age And 't is not inconsiderable that God takes children themselves into Covenant Deut. 29. 11. 2. This for their duty to God They have also a duty which they owe to parents Ephes 6. 1. And both these are clear in that God appoints correction as a great means to keep them in even from their Infancy Now God allows not correction but for faults and there can be no fault where there is no duty But God appoints the rod for little children See Pro. 22. 15. Foolishness i. e. wickednesse is bound in the heare of a child implying that there is a bundle of it and that it is fixed setled naturall what then is the way to remove it the rod of correction shall setch it out Sol. 23. 13. Withhold not correction from the child for if thou beâ—test him with the red be shall not dye implying that there are damning corruptions in Infants hearts and the way to save them from damnation is correction Sure God doth not promise salvation to children barely because they are whipped and corrected but as the end of that means when rightly used seeing the rod is an instrument to bring the child into a way of salvation And 't is observable that the way is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both places as in my Text. 2. That they cannot know this way without instruction is cleare 1. It we consider that none is borne a Chistian farther then in profession Job 11. 12. Man is born like a wild asses colt Vaine man or empty man is foolish and he is born so like an asse the dullest and foolishest of all creatures foolish to a proverb and like a wild asse the dullest and most unteachable of Asses and such a colt is man borne 2. That we have no knowledge by inspiration without the use of means A child would neither speak nor go were he not taught though God can give both without means yet he will not so neither will he infuse knowledge immediately having appointed means for us to use to that end If a child be bred where the name of God and Christ and religion is not heard needs must he be an Atheist 2. Reason teacheth us that when we attempt to alter the naturall disposition of any thing we must begin
A SERMON OF CATECHIZING THOUGHT FIT For affinity of subject to be annexed to this Treatise of the Practicall use of INFANT-BAPTISME By the same Authour Lutherus se professus est Discipulum Catechismi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Paedag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for John Rothwel 1655. TO THE READER Christian Reader THou art here presented with a Sermon tending to revive an Ordinance of God almost grown out of date what through the neglect of parents in private and Ministers and Magistrates in publick and that in some places so far that it is the great hinderance of those that doe practise it to be prejudiced by the example of those that doe not some children being apt to plead the liberty that others have and count it an injury if they enjoy not the same though it be the sad liberty of dying without instruction And this neglect is so much the more sad because it is so visible a compliance with the erroneous and heretical generation of this present Age who first decryed it in these dayes of sinful liberty as knowing how far such an omission would be friend them Thence thousands of people seasoned with no principles become easily infected with theirs Multitudes of Apostates concerning whom all the good we can say is that they speak evil of the things they know not and 2 Pet. 2. 2 turn away from the holy Commandement without the sad aggravation of having known the way of righteousness However it is a grievous thing that multitudes should daily through ignorance and errour go blindfold to Hell and few men take any pains to lend them their helping hand to keep them from that sad doom of perishing for want of knowledge If it be said This is done by constant Preaching I answer surely a man may Preach long enough to hundreds in the Congregation if his Congregation be of any largenesse extraordinary who will not be able to give any accompt of one sentence they hear if they live an hundred years under the Ordinance which will not appear improbable if we consider that many come to Church meerly for fashion and take no notice of any thing there but gaze upon this and that object that others are dull of apprehension and their understandings in a continued discourse are like a troubled water wherein one ring or circle drives out another and lastly that all generally except they be catechized or extraordinarily furnished with parts beyond their neighbors find it an hard matter to understand the very common terms in which Preachers must expresse themselves and many times lose a whole Sermon for want of understanding or mis-understanding of them For though a Minister thinks he expresseth himself very plain yet it is almost incredible what strange conceits most ignorant people have of common notions We that are Ministers of the Gospel may easily guesse at the profoundnesse of their ignorance by our own grosse imaginations worse then Nicodemus his of Regeneration when we were children although we had the advantage of education beyond them what absurd apprehensions we had concerning the greatest and weightiest points of Religion And I am sure most of our hearers are not arrived nor ever do to their dying day arrive unto the understanding of a child of twelve or fourteen years old bred under means of Literature Many of our words and expressions in our Sermons do what we can are Metaphorical and Equivocal or if proper yet according to the present improvement of the English Tongue which a Minister that hath been bred a Scholar cannot possibly but have some smatch of we have many forreign words made denizons of our language which being grown familiar to us we are apt to use and with a general charity to all our peoples understandings conceive they stumble them no more then they doe us whiles yet we are to them Barbarians do what we can many times even in our own Mother Tongue In a word consider that no Minister in his Preaching let him be never so full and plain and methodical can possibly cast all the heads of Divinity the form of sound words into so narrow a compasse considering the time that he must take up in the principal part of Preaching Application but that to go through them in that way will require a competent number of years for a man that is but indifferently full of matter though he forbear all unnecessary enlargements And in this way before an hearer can be throughly acquainted with a systeme of Divinity to know what he should doe the greatest part of his doing time will be over Besides to such a way of principling men by the tedious method before spoken of we must suppose each hearer to be able to accompany a Preacher with an understanding and memory sutable to his daily progresse from point to point and to be every Lords day present otherwise what he loseth either through absence or weaknesse of apprehension and memory at one time will make such a wide gap and breach in the rest of notions that he is rendred uncapable of understanding and improving many other points to which the knowledge of that or those wherein he so fails necessarily leads I might adde here the usuall consinement of many practicall Preachers by the inclination of their own spirits or the secret determination of Gods Spirit to such a series of Truths as tends most to some end which they are most fitted to pursue the main stream of one Ministers labours running in the channel of convincing Truths Anothers labours are most directed to work upon the hearts of sinners for conversion anothers to apply cordials to the hearts of Saints for consolation another studies and Preacheth for the most part in a Theological determination of Cases of Conscience and most of the strength of their labours is spent in those respective wayes to which their studies most bend Now how shall an hearer from such a mans Preaching if he wait only on his Ministery be rendred as he should be throughly furnished for every good work These things I have in brief presented to such of my reverend Fathers and Brethren as among other Readers shall think any thing of mine worthy their condescension to look upon it concerning hundreds of whom in this Land I ingenuously and from my heart acknowledge that I am not worthy to carry their Books after them and therefore confesse my self too weak to advise them Only for the glory of God and the salvation of poor souls and in the present course which they are to run in this erroneous and seducing generation for their grounding and settling upon necessary foundations of faith and godlinesse I think my self bound to be a remembrancer unto such of our Ministery as have too much of late neglected this Ordinance of God and especially to those who are of the judgement of Infant-Baptisme who cannot but know that the very admission of Infants as Church-members by Baptisme
renders the whole Church and themselves principally as Officers thereof indebted to them for their education Men Fathers and Brethren I beseech you bear with a few affectionate expostulations with you on the behalf of the most innocent most hopeful most teachable part of your Congregations those I mean of the yonger sort It may be they are yet for the most part dis-engaged in their affections Did they understand grace and Christ and Religion these might prepossesse them and gain their first love You may preach out your lungs and heart to them when they are set upon their sinful way and marching furiously in it like so many Jehu's or settled upon their lees When their lusts have gotten the protection of a rivetted ignorance and it may be possessed them with a desire of continuing in it Surely me thinks you should leave your young candidates of holinesse whom you have washed in Baptismall water pleading with you thus Sirs by your Ministery we are devoted to the service of one God in a glorious Trinity of persons How shall we serve him whom we know not Think you we can ever own it for a mercy or a priviledge to be admitted into a Covenant which we understand not And will it not be the greatest temptation to us to renounce that Ordinance because we cannot tell what good it doth to us Our present Age renders us waxy and ductile easily moulded into any form Why do you not forestall the market of Satan and Seducers by prepossessing us for God Why are we dedicated to God in our Infant-age if not to engage us to be his betime And how can we be so except we give our selves a sacrifice voluntarily as once we were offered by our parents And how can we offer our selves a sacrifice but in a reasonable service Rom. 12. 1 Did you then only admit us to the empty name of Christians and Church-members that we might afterwards for want of knowledge of our duty live and dye the veryer Heathens You preach truth and we hear it but our bottles are too narrow mouth'd to take in so much at once nay so great a stream striving for admission at once causeth all to run beside You preach to work upon our Consciences but work upon our understandings first and deal with us according to our capacities Give us milk as babes and that will strengthen our stomachs to digest stronger meat in time Our parents many of them most of them are ignorant or careless of the performance of so necessary a duty We are therefore devolved upon you as our spiritual Fathers Let it not seem much to you to descend beneath your selves the heights of your learned Nations high speculations to lisp principles a little with your babes in Christ The great Apostle did so and was never the lesse for it And it will be no whit to your discomfort at the last day that you have denyed your greatest excellency which makes you taller by the head and shoulders then other men for the glory of Christ and the salvation of souls by becoming all things to all persons and ages that you might win some Dear and honoured Sirs what shall any of us reply to so rational a plea Yea how much shall we come short of our duty if we do not grant it and act accordingly If we be Shepherds like Christ the great Shepherd we must carry the Lambs in our bosome as well as drive the elder sheep before us If we be Fathers indeed we must teach our children to goe by the formes and walls and goe-cart who cannot goe alone till they gather skill and strength enough to dee so For my part I had not made so bold with you but upon a principle I hope of self-denial chusing rather to adventure the censure of my reverend Fathers and elder brethren then to suffer the sonls of so many of my younger brethren and sisters in the Lord as are daily born into the Church by Baptisme to be starved at nurse for want of milk As for the means of redressing these sad mischiefs I know none like the conscionable practise of Catechizing fortified with the Magistrates concurrence to command both the Ministry to do their duty therein and all Parents and Masters to present their children and servants under some severe penalty thereunto For truly the Ministers are not altogether to blame in this thing Many of them would do more in it could they prevail with their people to put to their helping hands but this is many times the lot of industrious Ministers they would Catechize willingly but that they can prevail with very few to be milling to be Catechized Is there no balm in Gilead no power in the Magistrates hand to heal this evil disease of spiritual sloth and carelesnesse of attending upon publick Ordinances Honourable Patriots we desire not you should for the consciences of any to consent to what it sees not ground for from the Scriptures but we desire you should bring them where they may be informed and then let God work We would teach them their duty to you together with their duty to God as well and I hope better then those private Teachers whom they have yet by a publick allowance liberty to follow we act in the face of the Sun we infuse no principles in corners but what we preach publickly you know our doctrine and our conversation Do the levelling Anti-Magistratical doctrines that fly all abroad about the Land flow from our Congregations or theirs Is it not safer to have children principled by us in a publick way by Catechismes appointed by Authority then by others in private who some of them teach either the Raccovian or the Munsterian principles or which are worse then both the horrid Gallimaufrey of Errours and Heresies raked up out of all the kennels and dunghils of the former and present Ages lately penned and Printed by John Bidle For my part I think publick Catechizing yields the greatest security to the Magistrate that can be of his subjects especially the very prime and cream of them the youth who if they be poisoned by such principles as dare not abide the light may create unknown dangers to him when he thinks himself most secure And I think that was the Politique ground of that project some years since of taking the children of Papists out of their hands and giving them Protestant education The Lord in his time convince us all of our duty and quicken us to it that we may by laying the sound grounds of Religion in the youth of these Nations provide for the maintenance of Truth and Holinesse in succeeding generations Mean while I have done my endeavour to the furtherance of this work and I hope removed all rational impediments thereunto in the following Sermon which I leave in thy hands Christian Reader wishing it may work upon thee whoever thou art in thy capacity to yield a ready assistance to the furtherance of so eminently useful