Merchandize slaves and souls of men Rev. 18. a den of theeves have not you the CCClergy yea your Dr. talks of the Font and the communion Table and the pulpit but who stole away baptism and the supper and preaching it self so that there 's nothing but sprinkling bells babies and confusion and one moity of a dinner and more Pulpit and Pew and Belcony and Canopy and Cloth and Cushion then preaching and plain publication of the Gospel as it is in Jesus you talk off robbing God in matters of the law and Tithes offerings and things that came by Moses and now are not at all but who hathrobbed him in matters of grace and truth and ordinances and things that came by Christ one tittle of whose Testament shall not be contradicted by man nor angel under pain of cursing you talk of golden cups and vessels in which the whore fills out her abominations and filthinesse of her fornication to the whole earth but who hath taken away the key of the Kingdom of heaven i. e. from the people and Church in whom the power lies fundamentally and primarily for t is but derivatively from the church under God secondarily executively and ministerially in the Officers not onely Papa but P P too see Rutherfords Presbytery wherein he wrests the power of the Keyes from the people who hath taken away the key of knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men as neither willing to go in themselves by the right way and baptism nor to suffer them that would who but ye O Priests have been in these things more sacrilegi church-robbers then sacerdotes or givers of holy things yea what evil of this kind YYYou have wrought in the sanctuaries of God how you have laid them wast throughout the whole earth how you have defiled the pure waters thereof and did so Claudere rivos shut down the floodgates that the people could have none of these to drink and caused all discourses and all placesto overflow with muddy and brackish waters if I should hold my peace the stones out of the wall even those living stoâ—…s out of the true Temple that are living monuments of Gods mercy at this day in that they are alive from the dead even the dead night of your errors will proclaim to the everlasting infamy of that generation that have been the neerer the church the further from God Thou makest thy boast of God O P P Priesthood and wouldst seem to approve of the things that are most excellent and art confident thou thy self art a guide of the blind and a light of them that sit in darknsse an instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes but indeed thou art a blind guid a dark lantorn a foolish instructer and hast need thy self to be taught by those babes which live upon the sincere milk of the word which be the first principles of the oracles of God thou hast a form of knowledge and of truth as it was in the Law that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long since abolished according to which thou Enthusiasts to thy self a Iudai al Pontificall Politicall Pollitical Religion of thy own but thou art grossely ignorant of the truth of the Gospel and that form of doctrine that Rome obeyed from the heart of old before it came to be a mother of harlotry and of such a crew of corrupt children as have since then come from her to the corrupting ing of the earth thou teachest another but thou teachest not thy self thou preachest a man should not steal but thou stealest thou saiest a man should not commit adultery but all the Kings and their people in the christian earth have committed adultery with thee thou seemest to abhorre it yet thou more then any committest sacriledge yea thou o P P Priesthood art that holy harlot that holy thief that hast fingred the most holy things yea even the holy Scripture it self which is the store-house and under Christ the treasury of truth and hid it from the world under unknown tongues and a heap of unsound sences which thou hast put upon it therefore thou art inexcusable O woman when thou judgest the now churches of sacriledge for wherein thou judgest them thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things which thou saiest they do but they do not and therefore is he now killing thy children with death and we are sure that the judgement of God is according to truth against them that do such things Yea wo unto you O ye blind guids ye strein at a gnat and make it sacriledge and church robbing to take Fonts and railes and pipes and pictures and altars c. out of your stone Temples and keep a do about cleansing and hallowing and having these outside decencyes and orders and offerings but swallow a camel and demolish the true temple of God and the vessels of the sactuary i. e. the ordinances thereof which is holy indeed which Temple the Saints are that are built together a spiritual house unto him and your selves are full of ravening extortion and excesse you are as graves that appear not and the men that walk over you are not aware of you nor how they are rid over by you nor how very well to be rid of you wherefore the wisdome of God even Christ Iesus now sends you prophets and Apostles and wisemen and Scribes to warn you yet these you kill and crucifie and scourge and persecute as your enemies because they tell you the truth that the blood of all the Prophets that have prophesied in Sack cloth and tormented you and your forefathers and your people that dwell on earth for 42 moneths may come on this generation and so your house be left unto you desolate for ever And fourthly there needs no more to prove you to be what you say of us that we are viz. a lying and blasphemous sect then all these forenamed falsities which are asserted oâ—… the Anabaptists when of right they belong more properly to your selves Yea great need indeed and good reason that you should be the Plantiffs in this businesse of loading with disgraces belying and blaspheming who have bin your selves nexâ—… and immediately under Satan Supreme false accusers of the brethren to the world and the powers Courts and consistories thereof civil and ecclesiastical for Hereticks Schismaticks Sectaries seditious deceivers hypocrites blasphemers enemies to Caesar trouble Townes and what not with which kind of nick names you the false kingdome of the Priests have overwhelmed the true royall Priesthood as with a flood the burden of whose scandals blasphemies tales and disgraces wherewiâ—…h you have loaded the saints per mille ducentos sexaginta annos 1260. years exceeds any id genus that the saints have loaded you with in number weight and measure per millies mille ducentas sexaginta Iâ—…s 1000000260 l. You have cloathed the pretious sons and daughters of Sion as the persecuting Emperors did of old with the skins of wild
were willing to stay and hear and so may his Ministers too for ought I know for while you were scratching and clawing one another at your Inâ—… we teaching and convincing each other in the Outer Court for there was no room for Christ in the Inner Temple we were curst most bitterly with bell though neither with book nor candle yea there a rose who knows not whence for sure 't was either from you and your party or you in your party or you without your party or at least your party without you such a hot dispute of bim-bom-bell which put us to such a non-plus that least we should perdere in contentione vocem we were fain to give over and be gone and were utterly Routed in the skirmish tell we could well Raylly together in another place So here 's the upshot of the business of that Disputation of which somewhat more might yet be written had my business been to give Account and not rather to take Account of your Account on 't but this is written that people may believe your true Account to be a true Counterfeit and believing it may know the better how to trust you another time One word more yet to the Disputers and Scribes OF THE ASHFORD DISPUTATION OR AN EPILOGETICAL POSTSCRIPT ON THEIR APOLOGETICAL PREFACE Pre. THere was never any Intent this Disputation following should have appeared in publick c. Post. Like enough so Sirs for the first appearance or deliverie of it self in publique by word of mouth was with so little credit to your cause that it might very easily be as ashamed to shew its face in print as the Scribes that penn'd it seem'd to be to shew their names And doubtless so it would have been but that it came disguis'd And yet even this false face whereby you have made it shew fairer by farr on one side I mean your own then at first it did is so black so blind so full of blurres and blemishes that it cannot chuse when it comes to review it self the second time but color red and blush at its own blindnesses if it be not Brazen Pre. But that like Jonas's Gourd it should have died as suddenly as it grew c. Post. Like Ionas's Gourd indeed for Ionas-like O that you were as like him in his best as you are too like him in the basest of his behavior you run away from God O ye Priests and refuse to preach the preaching that he bids you whereupon a mighty tempest is upon you and upon the waters whereon you ride i. e. the tongues nations multitudes and peoples so that they are troubled for your sakes and upon the Earth it self which is as it were the Ship in the bowells of which you have imbarqued your selves ever since your fall from heaven thither in the loins of your Father Abaddon Revel 9. 1. So that it reels to and fro like a Drunkard is moved exceedingly like to be split in pieces clean dissolved utterly devoured with a curse for your sinns principally O yee Priests who have trangressed the Laws of Christ the only Lord and Law-giver changed his Ordinances broken the everlasting covenant neither will the sea of the whole world cease to roar about you and be outragious till the lot fall upon you as it did on Ionas to be cast forth though the Ship-Masters row never so hard to have you spared nor till the Tempestuous waves on which you seek still to swim aloft have over-whelm'd you so on every side that you be fain to cry Alas out of the belly of hell But Alas though the ship rock and is ready to suffer ship-wrack yet as if they had made a Covenant with death and with hell were at at an agreement So rockt asleep is Ionas so sluggish are our Renegado Prophets that they yet discern not the mystery of the things that are upon them but are stark sensless of the stirs that are about them and of the storms which themselves are most concern'd in And what the Gourd was to Ionas in his heat even such is this Disputation also to your cause of Infant-baptism viz. as short as sleight a shelter a shadow for there 's no substance in 't under which you have rejoyced a while and receiv'd some thin refreshment and defence against the heat of that truth with which you were a while tormented But God hath prepared a silly worm to smite the Gourd sothat though it blossom like a Rose and flourisheth as a chief flower among your followers for a time yet it will die even as suddenly as it grew so that leaving you to your Evensong to the Tune of or like the Gourd that Jonas had men will begin to sing mattens ere-long saying Their Rose withers Their Blossom blasteth Their Flower fades The mor-ning hasteth Their mour-ning hasteth Their Sun Sets Their shadow flies Their Gourd consumes The Dar-ling dyes Their sprink-ling dyes Pre. The truth is the disgraces that the Adversaries in private have loaded it withall have rak't it out of those ashes c. Post. For your Respondent whom you mainly mean here witness these words of yours to me viz. Sir These short Collections of the Ashford disputation had slept long enough if your own private letters had not awakned them by a too much sleighting your opponents and their Arguments not without a just occasion from a friend of yours presented in a letter called a spade a spade and represented your Doo back again in no worse wise then it deserved Asserting that your pleading of Infant-sprinkling from that non-entity of Infant-believing was shamefull and childish pedling and that the miserable rawness and rudeness of some then and there ingag'd in Syllogisticall dispute did savor as little of the Scholar as that of the Christian all which and what more is there related was no other then the Truth when I pen'd it and I find nothing to the contrary yet in your Account Howbeit 't was so disgracefull and loadsome that you Disputers immediately became Scribes and posted out a piece of Print on a sleeveles errand i. e. the Recovery of your Retrograde Repute being afraid not more hen hurt that if this man of war do not what is not to be done maintain your Infant-sprinkling which premi hand suprimi potest the more you tread the more you spread your credit may grow so crazy upon 't as to die indeed as indeed it doth and that daily for as zealous as you are to unlade your selves in your Romish wayes of disgraces yet what grace unless you have the Grace to Repent in this juncture wherein the Lord is about to fill the earth with the knowledge of himself and that glorious truth which you have darkned and to bring shamefull spuing upon all your Ghostly glory Pre. In which it was designed to be smothered c. Epil Scarce any Infant ever past alive I think under so many murtherous and Smotherous designs as this one poor Insant-disputation that was
Sirs as far as that example is of force it overturns your turn who use it in the thing in order to which you alledge it and overthrows you clearly in your question as you state it and in your tenet of a right to baptism for only believers infants exemplifying rather if the example were to be heeded the baptizing not of such infants only as are born of believing parents which we are against but such as are born of unbelieving parents also who se baptism your selves are against as well as we Ad hominem therefore I conclude and ab exemplo on behalf of unbelievers infants as your selves do from the same head on behalf of believers infants only thus viz. To hold that the universal Church or Christian world hath erred in so necessary a matter as baptism for so many hundred years is little less than damnable blasphemy But to hold it an error to baptize the infants that are born of unbelieving parents is to hold that the universal Church or Christian world which hath baptized in suo genere such as well as others hath so longerred in so necessary a matter as baptism Ergo to hold it an error to baptise the infants that are born of unbelieving parents is little less then damnable blasphemy Another Argument whereby you strive to evince your opinion viz. the baptism of believers infants above other infants and to evade ours viz. the denial of baptism to them both alike as desperate and ungodly is drawn from the danger of their damnation if it be denied them and the destructiveness of that denyal to all that hope that else may be had of their salvation which if it be of force doth it not cry out as loud against your desperate and ungodly cruelty on behalf of those millions of innocents of infidells dying infants to whom in opinion and doctrinally you deny baptism as well as we as it doth on behalf of believers infants who are no more innocent then the other to whom we deny it also for if it be such a business as not we but you and the rest of the right Romish Priests seem to make it the denial of which de jure facto damnes so down-rightly the infants dying without it that there 's no hope to be had of their salvation so you say or else my shallow noddle cannot reach the profoundity of your purpose in pettering out that pure pious piece of sense which with this Argument of yours is stuffed pag. 13. then it s high time as high a degree of charity as you would be thought to have towards a few infants viz. one of a hundred for scarely so many are true believers infants to the rest to plead for the baptism of unbelievers infants too and stand up in the cause of those innumerable poor babes that cannot speak a word for themselves against your Cruelties who deny baptism to them and deny all hope of their salvation to whom they so dying it is deni'd yea verily Sirs perswade us to that once and make us believe that popish trumpery that the deniall of baptism to any infants doth so much as doctrinally damn them and then I 'le plead for baptizing of infants in a larger way then you who confine it to believers infants onely viz. for the baptism of all babes and sucklings in the world and that least they die and so be damn'd before it be dispensed to them so soon as they are well out of the womb so far are we from that cruelty to infants which you commonly though not properly charge upon us that if we thought as you think but Sirs mistake us not for we have good ground to act more charity then your selves do to all dying infants could we think I say that their salvation did so depend upon their baptism that their damnation would be the issue of denying it we durst not be so desperately cruell as your selves nor limit it to some one infant of an hundred know Sirs we are tender in our construction of the condition of all that die in such minority as you sprinkle in before they have known or done eithe rgood or evil and are well assured there 's no damnation to such of what parents soever descended and as little need of your Rantism to their salvation but for you who are so seemingly compassionate and charitable to a few how churlish are you to a hundred to one whilst your cruel doctrine excepting such as are born of believers onely curses all the rest unavoidably to hell you talk much of your own charity to infants and our cruelty but truly Sirs I dare tell you that your tender mercies to that age of infancy are meer cruelty so long as in your childish dotage on some you send so many packing to perdition and as unchristian as our cruelty is it hath more tender mercy in it to the whole infancy of the world then all your Christian charity doth yet amount to for as you prescribe it p. 5. 't is our rule indeed but not your own presumere unumquemque bonum nisi constet de malo to presume and hope well even the best things and things that accompany salvation of all infants as well as some specially since it cannot appear that any of them have yet by any actual sin bard themselves or deserv'd to be exempted from the general state of little children declared in Scripture which is a right to the Kingdome of heaven but your Christian charity hath not carried you out so farre yet as to hope and presume well of infidels infants unbelievers infants or any unrantized infants though it cannot appear that any of these have by any actuall sinne more barr'd themselves then the other or more deserved to be exempted from that general state of little children declar'd in Scripture then the infants of the best believers in the world Whether therefore we who though we baptize no infants at all nor see warrant in the word so to do yet believe and that not ungroundedly nor as being more merciful then God shews himself to be to them the salvation of all that die in infancy or one who imagining as sillily as your selves that no baptism no salvation should thereupon for pitty dispute against you limiters of Gods grace for the baptizing of all infants in the world or your selves who supposing the same i. e. no hope to be had of their salvation to whom baptism is denied have yet no more pitty in you then to dispute for the baptism of believers infants onely excluding all other infants from it in doctrine though not all in practise which are no less then an hundred to one whereby not a moity onely but all save a small moity of infants in the world yea in the very Christian world in which the most by far are unbelievers are cut off at once from not the Church on earth onely but all share in the Kingdom of heaven also which of all these
I say viz. we he or you are most cruel and desperate and do most justly deserve the censure which you Priests put upon us p. 15. of your pamphlet of damning infants dying contrary to evident testimony of Scriptures and of damning innumerable innocents such as infants of infidels are whose right to the Kingdome of heaven our Saviour declared I propound it to be considered by your selves and all other men at leasure at present seeing this Argument of yours makes also more against then for you whose plea is for some infants against other if your Minor in it viz. that denial of baptism to infants destroyes all hope of their salvation were true as it is not and speaks for a necessity of baptizing all infants and not a few onely I 'le Syllogize it back upon you in much what your own terms and so pass hence to the other That opinion which destroyes all hopes of the salvation of many dying infants to one in the world yea in the very Christian world too is a most desperate ungodly uncharitable opinion But the opinion of you Priests who deny all hopes of salvation to those to whom baptism is deni'd and yet deny it doctrinally your selves to all unbelievers infants which are many to one in the Christian world and dispute for its dispensation to believers infants onely is such as destroyes all hope of the salvation of many dying infants to one as well in the Christian world as elsewhere Ergo the opinion of you Priests is a most cruel desperate ungodly uncharitable opinion Another fine fancie whereby you would fain juggle men into a belief that believers infants and these onely are to be baptized runs thus else say you the Gospel Covenant is worse then that under the law forasmuch as then litle infants were circumcised Now Sirs when I come to meddle with this Argument ore again I shall shew you plainly the imbecillity of it to prove the baptism of any infants at all and the meliority of the Gospel-Covenant above that of the law though infants be not now baptized as Circumcised then at present I am to shew how if it would prove any thing it would prove the right of baptism to unbelievers infants to whom you deny it as well as to believers infants whose baptism onely you seem to plead by it I say suppositively that this is to make the Gospel-Covenant worse then that of the law to deny baptism to infants now sith they then admitted infants to Circumcision then the denial of it to believers infants which is your own opinion makes it worse then it was under the law as well as the denial of it to infants of believers for under the law the infants of unbelievers which were many to one believer among the Iews Is. 53. 1. were both de jure and de facto circumcised as well as those of the believing Iews and so by your own rule ought the one to be baptized now as well as the other Again by the denial of baptism to the infants of unbelievers not onely a moity but the most of Christendome as in which are by far more unbelievers infants then others are cut off at once from baptism and membership I conclude therefore thus If thaâ—… opinion which denies baptism to little children makes the Gospel-covenant worse then that under the law then the opinion of those Priests who deny baptism to all unbelievers infants whereby not a moity onely but most of the Christian world in which the most are unbelievers are cut off from being members of the Church makes the Gospel-Covenant worse then the law But though not veraciter yet secundum te O Presbitâ—…r that opinion which denies baptism to little children whereby a moity of the Christian world is so cut off makes the Gospel-Covenant worse then that under the law Ergo thy opinion which denieth baptism to all unbelievers infants whereby more then a moity of infants is so cut off makes it worse under the Gospel then under the law Another curious conceit whereby you undertake to clear the right of baptizing the infants of believing parents above others is the being and plain yea more plain appearing of the holy spirit to be in these children then in others or then in men whom we baptize that make profession which plain and sufficient appearance so you stile it p. 5 of the spirits being in these children is made say you many waies First by these infants faith Secondly by these infants holiness Thirdly by those Eulogies that are given to these children in Scriptures not inferiour to those of the best Saints Fourthly by that Scripture in special 2 Cor. 13. know you not that the Spirit that Christ you should have said is in you except ye be reprobates lastly and mainly by these childrens non-appearing not to have the spirit by these childrens not appearing to be evil by these infants not appearing by any actuall sin to have barr'd themselves or deserved to be exempted from the general state of little infants declared in Scripture by all which on pain and guilt of the breach of Christian charity whose rule is praesumere unumquenque bonum nisi constet de malo we are bound to believe that these infants of believing parents not of others have evidently enough the holy spirit Now Sirs the Lord help you to your eye-sight if it be his will for I le be bold to say these Seers are as blind as a beetle what ever they seem to themselves to see who by any thing at all that is here brought do discern the holy spirit to be in any infants but this which is to the present purpose may be more safely asserted that all this proves it not one jot more to be in the infants of believers then it proves it to be in unbelievers infants to whom you deny baptism as well as we in plea pretence and prate at least but not altogether in practise for verily these have as much promise of the spirit as the other those parents Acts 2. being yet unbelievers while Peter spake to them saying the promise is to you and your children yea these have as much capacity for the spirit as much manifestation of the spirit as much capacity to believe as much holyness as much Eulogie in Scripture for Christ commends not the infants of some parents above the infants of others but indefinitly the whole age of infancy alike as little appearance yet of being reprobates and so consequently as much appearance that Christ is in them as in the other as little appearance of evill of actual sin whereby to bar themselves or deserve exemption from the generall state of little children declared in Scripture as is in the infants of believers all which shall plainly appear out of hand and much of it out of your own handy work in my handling of your first Argument in particular which now I am return'd to again I shall begin with and so pass through it
it was under the Law and to bereave little children of what belongs to them Thus Mr. Marshal where by the word housholds he should understand children as well as others for his own ends he leaves them out but where by the word housholds such families are exprest as in which he knows not that there was one infant and may know if there were by the very places themselves that they were excluded yet there he winds things aboutto wind them in By all this you see how little consequence is in the Argument children were circumcised Ergo they must be baptized Yea say you Ashford disputants in the tail of your argument or else the Covenant of the Gospel is worse to the spiritual seed of Abraham then it was to the carnall seed under the law Bus Sirs to conclude this matter I say no for if by spirituall seed you mean Christians natural infants I must as before cry shame on you still for stiling them the spiritual seed of Abraham for if Abrahams own semen carnis be not qua sic his semen fidei are the semen carnis of believing Gentiles Abrahams semen fidei but if by his spiritual seed you mean such as are so indeed i. e. true believers are this spiritual seed ere the worse because a meer fleshly seed may not without faith be signed as heirs together with them how will you ever be able to make that good yet again to take your words so punctually as may be by meer denial of baptism to your carnal seed is the Gospel made worse to Abrahams spiritual seed then the same Gospel was to Abrahams carnal seed of old no such matter surely Sirs for the Gospel was preacht but darkly to the Jews of old which were Abrahams carnal seed viz. onely in types and figures and shadows and prophecies pointing out onely Christum exhibendum a saviour to come but now it s preacht not only to believers that is Abrahams spiritual seed but also to unbelivers and to the whole world and this more plainly too and without a vail holding forth salvatorem exhibitum a saviour that hath already offered himself a ransom and salvation by him in common to all Iews and Gentiles bond and free even every creature that puts it not away from him when tendered to him Mark 16. 15. 16. 1 Iohn 2. 2. so that the Gospel is as good now to the full to all men in its administration as it was of old and in many respects far better though no infants at all be baptized and so I have done with this argument and come to the next Disputation That opinion which destroyeth the comfort that the holy ghost administreth over the losse of our children by death is a desperate and ungodly opinion But such is the opinion of the Anabaptists concerning little children Ergo it is desperate and ungodly The minor proved It destroyes the hope that parents can have of the salvation of their children for it makes them in no better condition then Turks and Pagans and so our Respondent himself professed and when the Apostle saith 1 Thess. 4. 13. I would not have you sorrow as those without hope the grieved parents might reply what hope can we have of our child who is in no better condition then the children of infidels what comfort can we have from the Covenant made with and the promises to our children c therefore why should we not sorrow as those without hope Our Respondent replyed to this that for ought he knew the children of Turks and Pagans might be all saved and one replyed Perhaps he thought the devils might also which was the end of the argument there being no other answer given nor to be expected Disproof As I replied then so I reply still that for ought I know the children of Turks and Pagans dying in infancy may be all saved yet will it not follow so much as probably that therefore in reallity or in my opinion either the Devils may be saved also which rude return is recorded by your selves to be then given and stands for ever before the world as the end of this your argument and of your Disputation also there being to this assertion of mine viz. for ought I know the children or dying infants of Turks and Pagans may be all saved no other answer given by you in the Dispute nor yet since in your Account nor yet ever to be expected But Sirs as great an Extasie as you seem to be in about this position yet I assure you if I had not learn'd it before yet I have learn't it since from your very selves who so strange at it to be a thing not so strange as true viz. that the dying infants of Turks and Pagans may be all saved and that the dying infants in your Christendom are in no better condition then the dying infants of Turks and Pagans for so I said and not as you here misrelate it then Turks and Pagans themselves for if the dying infants of infidels are in no worse condition then your dying infants then surely yours are in no better condition then they and that they are in no worse condition then yours nothing need hinder you more then me for ought I know from a belief thereof unlesse you will refuse to believe your selves who preach no lesse both to me and all men no further off hence then in the next page and the next save one above for do you not say there that unlesse we will violate Christian charity whose rule is praesumere c. to presume every one to be in a good condition till he appears to be in an evil we must believe and hope all thingâ—… of the little children of believers since it cannot appear in infancy that they have barred themselves c. and if so â—…hy not of the infants of Turks Pagans and infidels specially to speak in your own dialect since it cannot appear that these have any more than the other by any actual sin barred themselves or deserved to be exempted from the general state of little children declared in the Scriptures which is this viz. That of such is the Kingdome of heaven You see then how you teach us this precious piece of truth your selves p. 4. 5. therefore I hope you will learn it your selves viz. that we are to hope well of such infants as have not by actual sin barred themselves from Salvation and allow us to teach it too in time though hitherto you seem to be so far from giving way to us to teach the same that when we speak well of infâ—…nts that have not by actual sin deserved exemption and hope well of their salvation so dying you so wretchedly forget it to be the doctrine your selves deliver that with detestation you ptotest against it as abominable as if there were as little hope to be had of the salvation of such dying infants as are not born in Christendome as of the salvation of the very devils
extension of the grace of God in this Covenant and in the administration of it too it goes beyond the other for not only is the Gospel a clearer promulgation of the eternal covenant then that typical covenant was whereby the glory of it may be seen more plainly and with open face then when it was seen onely in the type as a thing to come for we preach Christum exhibitum Christ crucified a sacrifice already offered and baptize and break bread in token hereof but they and that in much dimnesse too Christum exhibendum a Messiah to come he was veiled though seen through the veil in the old but revealed in this new dispensation but also it is of larger extent in respect of the subject to which it belongs for the revelation of it by preaching and real proferring of the grate of it in the name of God who is not willing that any should perish and fail of his grace unlesse they will is to all people in the world the old administration of circumcision and other pertinances of that covenant which was the type of this was limitted and narrowed into a little corner the land of Israel the people of the Iews yea more the very new covenant administration that we are now under as preaching baptizing c. while the old covenant did continue as it did for two or three year after the beginning of this by Iohn till Christ crucified was streitned exceedingly above what it is among us for saith Christ then go not into any way of the Gentiles but now since Christ crucified its extended freely to every nation and every person in it of capacity of years to receive it and till then dying before they shall never be damned for rejecting it without any exception as they believe for go saith he into all the world c. Mark 16 Mat. 28. then circumcision was limitted to males among the Iews but Christ and baptism is to Jew and Gentile male and female wâ—…thout difference as they believe so that the grace israther lengthned in the administration of baptism by taking in the females that were not circumcised then straitned by the denial of it to infants in their infancy onely for even those also may be baptized too if they will when they come to years the grace of the new covenant therefore is even thus as well as otherwise better then the old in respect of the extent of it and its administration also to more subjects for the Jews onely were the subjects of that grace and heirs by promise of the earth ly Canaan but all the world are heirs of heaven by promise according as they repent and believe the Gospel Besides if you think that ever God took the whole body of that nation Israel that belonged all to the typical salvation of the old covenant into the covenant of everlasting salvation by Câ—…rist in relation to their fathers faith without their own and thence conclude that the whole body of believers seed must be by faith of their parents admitted into that same Covenant of the Gospel this is a meer Chimaera of your own brain for no such grace of God as this though some priests of the Iews dreamed of it as well as you for which they were pretty well curried by Christ and Iohn Mat. 3. Iohn 8. ever was now is or ever shall be As for our valuing believers infants as Turks and Pagans I tell you we raâ—…e them higher then your selves for we set them not so low as Turks and Pagans that are at years and wicked for they though not without many possibilities of life by Christ yet dying impaenitents will be demned as well as many of you that abuse more light nor yet so low as the infants of Turks and Pagans for though they dying in infancy are by your own doctrine all alike i. e. none deserving exemption by actual sin from salvation yet living these have in likelihoood more advantages for life then those of Pagans but you though you set by a few more then the rest in your account and yet in some partes of your Account too you make them equal yet no lesse then 20 to one are valued little higher then the Divels for your speech p. 7. supposes that the divels may be saved as soon as the dying infants of Turks and Pagans Review If they object children cannot be taught nor made to understand the sacraments no more could they at circumcision If further that they shed tears at their baptism as unwilling to receive it so they did at circumcision If they say they were semen carnis and had right by the promise so these are semen fidei the promise is unto them If they say the seal is often voided by their infidelity afterwards because many baptized so young become reprobates so it was among the Iewes witnesse Ishmael and Esau and those of whom the Apostle saith that they entered not in through unbelief Re-Review Here you drive on four deep and against a fourfold assault make a four fold repulse pelting us amain but with pellets of brown paper To the â—…irst I reply no more need they be taught at circumcision but the baptized are commandâ—…d to be taught first untill they believe Mat. 28. 19 20. Mark 16. 15. 16. and also immediately after which is so plain that though here you answer by denying all possibility of childrens being taught before circumcision yet else where viz. p. 10. and 18. you fence this off with such prety contrary quiddy stuff as this viz. that as to baptism infants have a teaching a hearing and a learning for the spirit say you opens their ears quo magiâ—…ro quam cito discitur quod docet he doth it in them and in adultis too or else for all their hearing they l not believe but that we shal have more to say to when we come to it To the second that as unwilling as infants were to receive circumcision and as tedious as it was to them or servants either that received it yâ—…t by express command if they were Males in Abrahams house he was to dispense it to them whether they were willing or no but you have no such flat command to disease your little infants â—…o far as to dip them in water for so you should if you baptizd them indeed whether they will or no. To the third O wonderful that Abrahams own fleshly seed even by Isaâ—…c himself by bare descent from their bodies unlesse they also believed as Abraham did could become and be counted no more then bare semen carnis the children of Abrahams flâ—…sh have right by promise qua sic of no more then the earthly Canaan For Ishmael though born of Abraham and circumcised also as a male of his house was not heir by promise of so much as that Gen. 17. 19. 20 21. and yet that the fleshly seed of believing Gentiles should become and be accounted no less then Abrahams semen fides the children
e. both Jewes and Gentiles 2 Cor. 5. 19. 1 Iohn 2. 2. and to all nations as well as one Mat. 28. 18. Mark 16. 15. Luke 24. 47. excluding now the Major part yea almost all children by their doctrine viz. the children of unbelieving Gentiles of heathens Turks and Pagans and unbelieving Jewes too which for all their parents wickednesse and unbelief were wont to be received into the Church under the Law and this not onely from the visible Church neither for that were more tollerable of the two and can do them no hurt if it be all but also from the Kingdome of heaven and salvation it self in their cruel Charity before they have by actuall sinne deserved to be exempted And this I speak not as believing any infants in infancy to have right to entrance into the visible Church and fellowship thereof here on Earth though yet I believe all infants as well as some dying infants and before they have deserved exemption and damnation by actual rebellion to have according to the general declaration of Scripture right of entrance into the kingdome of heaven but that I may discover the unruliness of the Priest who wherein he judges others of streightning the Gospel condemnes himself who undertakes to make laws prescribe rules impose principles upon all men and yet breaks his own lawes varies from his own rules straggles from his own principles through blindness as much as any other whom he blames for it To the second thus if it be so indeed as you told us once before it is p. 7. and here tell us over again that we may know your mind in it that to deny baptism to infants before they dy doth ipso facto destroy all the comforts all the hopes that any parents can possibly have of the salvation of their infants that dy unbaptized and all the grounds of those hopes i. e. all those childrens right in the covenant and promises of Christ and consequently this necessarily followes doth subject them unavoidably unto eternal damnation Then first as I told you once or twice before so I tell you now again that 't is your selves and not we who are the men that say no baptism no salvation for say you there is no ground for parents to hope their children can be saved no though those parents be believers though those children believe also themselves and so both by birth and by their parents faith and their own faith too have right as you say the infants of Christians have in the Covenant and promises of Câ—…rist yet they must damn for all this if baptism be denyed them and if they dye without it their parents must mourne without hope of their Salvation This is your judgement of Charity concerning unbaptized infants even of never so believing parents having also the habit of faith in themselves for though parents believe and believe their children to have faith too and right to salvation yet deny them baptism and all the other notwithstanding there 's no hope of them the parents can upon no good ground be comforâ—…ed concerning them but that they are damned T is you therefore that place such high and mighâ—…y necessity in the bare outward dispensation of the ordinance that are so for the ceremony that hold that the substance doth no good without it why else do you say that be there never so many grounds otherwise on which to hope infants salvation viz. their parents faith and their own faith and title thereby to the Covenant which though false simple and rotten yet are the grounds on which you hope some dying infants may be sav'd though you fear the most are damn'd for indeed the true grounds on which to hope the salvation of all dying infants is there non-deserving exemption by actual sin and personal rebellion against the Gospel why I say though there be never so much ground of hope of their salvation do you say the grounds whereupon they elsewise may be hoped to be saved are all destroyed if they be denyed to be baptized Moreover I tell you that you run round like a blind horse in a mill and contradict your selves egregiously by holding â—…uch a high necessity of infants baptism that there 's no hope of their salvation if it be denyed them so that unlesse you recant it you l in the end repent it that ere you lived your selves and led others so long in such delusion for mark how you mope too and fro in a mist sometimes you say that birth of Christian parents and faith in the children so born these give right to the Covenant and the promises of Christ and so to salvation and the kingdome of heaven and their right to the promises and the kingdome that gives them right to baptism and to entrance into the visible Church supposing their right to salvation to be without baptism and before it as that which intitles them thereto making their visible right to baptism and the visible Church to depend upon their visible right to salvation saying they must be seen by some thing or other distinguishing them from others who are not heirs to be heirs belonging to the kingdome before they be signed as such and so you argue making an apparent right to baptism posteriour to their right to salvation viz. to whom the thing signified i. e. heaven appears to belong to them consequently the sign i. e. baptism else not but that appears to belong to infants therefore this which is as much as to say we must first look upon them and believe them to be heirs of salvation and upon that ground afterward baptize them so making the right to the sign depend upon the being of the thing signified Other while again as here you turn the cat i th pan and tell us a tale that turns all this up side down again and makes all their right to the Covenant promises of Christ to salvation by him to the kingdome which all are according to your other opinion to be Antecedent to baptism and entitling to it so that no apparent right to the Covenant and promise and kingdome and salvation no baptism you make I say all these on which you made baptism depend before so necessarily dependant on baptism so subsequent to it so no way appearing to belong to infants without it that no baptism no title to life deny them baptism and entrance into the visible Church and they are visibly in the kingdome of the divel there 's no hopes they can be saved if their parents let them die without it no grounds on which to hope it but though believers children and apparently enough believing themselves and so thereby in apparent right to the Covenant and promise of Christ and consequently of salvation and all this before they may be baptized yet they are in the visible kingdome of the divel and do but deny baptism to them and all those old evidences are worn out their names blotted out of the book of life their
that more is required to make a disciple then a servant yea verily the consequence holds sound from Christs disciple to Gods servant but from Gods servant to Christs disciple which is his way of arguing a very novice may see it rotten and invalid there is enough in all the creatures the earth and heavens which as books wherein we may read it though not as men that make any verball narration of it declare the glory of God Ps. 19. 1. to denominate them Gods servants Psa. 119. 91. Nebucad Nezar had enough to denominate him Gods servant Ier 43. 10. as Mr. T. truly tells him but not enough to denominate him Christs disciple Yea I appeal to Mr. Ba. own conscience whether at that time when Christ exercised his ministry among the Iews the whole Nation of the Iews as well as those he mentions out of Levit. 25. 41. and in the self same sense with those were not Iure Redemptionis by right of his Redemption of them from Egypt the servants of God had relatively a peculiar people to himself yet how few of them were Christs disciples viz. those onely that attended to his law in which respect though he stile all Israel his servants yet he distinguishes those few onely from the rest that harkned not to his law by the denomination of his disciples Isaiah 8. 16. And whereas he saies of infants may they not be called Gods servants from the meer interest of dominion that God hath to them p. 20. I answer who doubts of that but may they thereupon be called disciples and be baptized if so then from the meer interest of dominion that God hath to all men all men may be called Gods servants as well as they and so consequently be baptized as Christs disciples He tells us further p. 21. that infants are capable of being subjects of Christs kingdome taking kingdome not in the larger sense as it contains all the world nor in the strictest as it containeth onely his elect but in a middle sense as it conteins the visible Church therefore consequently capable of being Christs disciples and of baptizing and to prove the antecedent viz. that they are subjects of Christs kindome i. e. members of the visible Church he uses this medium they are capable of being subjects in any kingdome on earth and therefore why not of Christs kingdome saith he i. e. of the visible Church of Christ Now if this be a good consequence they are capable to be subjects in any Kingdom on earth and therefore to be subjects of Christs Kingdom i. e. his Church then the infants of heathens as well as these being capable to be subjects in any Kingdom on earth are consequently as capable to be subjects of Christs Kingdom and Church and consequently to be Christs disciples and in their infancy to be baptized but Mr. Baxter himself will say non sequitur unto this He tells us further that Christ would have some infants i. e. believers infants for those he meanes to be received as disciples therefore some infants i. e. such are his disciples To prove the antecedent he jumbles together a number of places out of Mat. Mark and Luke viz. Mat. 18. 5. the 10. 42. Mark 9. 41. Luke 9. 47. 48. in one of which places because Christ saies of a child who so shall receive this child in my name receiveth me by comparing this place with the rest where Christ saies to his disciples and of them also not of infants whoso shall give to you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ or as Matthew hath it in the name of a disciple he shall not loose his reward he gathers that some i. e. believers infants are disciples and to be received to baptism as such for saith he in Christs name and as Christs disciple and as belonging to Christ are all one in Christs language To which I answer First by denying that in Christs name and as a disciple and as belonging to Christ are all one for in Christs name is a Term of larger extent and latitude then the rest so that we may be said to do good in Christs name to some persons whom yet we cannot do good to as belonging to him in that neer relation of his disciples in the name of Christ besides severall other significations which the phrase hath is as much sometimes as for Christs sake who requires it and to do good to others in the name of Christ is to do good to them for Christs sake and then we may be said to do good for his sake not onely when we do good to them that are disciples of Christ upon that account of their belonging to him as his but also when we do good to them that are none of his disciples upon the meer account of his command who injoines all persons as occasion is to do good to all though especially to the houshold of faith whereupon also I perswade my self varily nor is it very unworthy of observation that the spirit when it speaks of doing good to profest disciples indeed Mar. 9. 41. he incourages to receive them not onely in the name i. e. for the sake of Christ so requiring but as belonging to him also as his disciples in the name of a Prophet in the name of a righteous man in the name of a disciple but when he speaks of our doing good to that child Luke 9. 48. he saies no more then barely in the name of Christ i. e. for the sake of Christ owning such an action but expresses not the other notion and account of discipleship and Relation to him as that on which he would have him to be received Moreover were it otherwise it would make little to the purpose of Mr. Ba. who brings it to prove some such sucking infants as men sprinkle i. e. believers babes to be disciples sith that it was a believers child of which Christ there speaks or that he speaks of such children rather then of the children of other men is much more then Mr. Ba. can ever clear and that it was a child of such a stature as to come to Christ when he cald him and therefore no infant of a span long nor such as is the subject of your sprinkling is too clear for Mr. Ba. to gainsay without clear contradiction of the Scripture Mat. 18. 2. These are far fetcht faddles whereby Mr. Ba. backs his people in the blind belief of his fond and false opinion that all believers infants are Christs disciples and thereupon to be baptized The mediums whereby he manifests their membership in the Gospel-church are many more then a good many and not more many then manifestly weak and utterly unavailable to such a purpose Rantist Many more then ever will be answered easily by you or any other that set so light by them as you do Baptist. That may possibly be too for I think no wise body will immittere pecus in pratum vbi non est sepes
busie himself beyond measure in such a boundlesse prate and piece of sillogization about infant membership as it is nor be so extravagant from Mr. Bs. own advice who p. 12. tells us that we shall never be able to justifie it if we lay out but the thousandth part of our time study talk or zeal yet if he have not spent the twenteth part of his own I am must mistaken upon this question it self either for or against it as to lose a moiety of his time in replying distinctly to such a mint of impertinencies as are handled at armes end here by Mr. Ba. for my own part I am not minded to tire my self to much with tracing at large after every new hare that starts in my way nor to stand dancing the hay after Mr Ba. into every corner of that laborinth of Logick into which he leads me and yet leaves me after view and Review as little ground for infant baptism as if he had said nothing at all nor shall I bury my self up from better imployment in the bottomlesse pit of those absurdities which this part of his book also is fully fraught with partly because I find that most that he saies there is in effect answered already in the book called Anti-babism where the genuine sense of the main Scriptures he rests into his own use is given out viz. Rom. 11. 1 Cor. 7. Mar. 9. 36. Rom. 4. 11. Mal. 2. 15. partly also because I perceive a vain of particular contest with Mr. T. to run thorow the whole which Mr. T. according to the particular interest he hath therein hath already taken notice of in Print so far as its worth an answer partly also because I am not so happy as to have the patience of many scarce of any of the churches of Christ whose servant I am suffering me hitherto without such frequent avocations of me from this to services of another nature abroad as are inconsistent with my writing of much more at home Neverthelesse besides some animadversion of as much of its absurdity as may be with conveniency I shall take the sting out so clearly that it shall not hurt and that by both a clear though general disproof of it all and as clear though generall and brief demonstration of the contrary Take notice therefore of the most cardinal argument upon which he grounds infant church-membership under the Gospel It was so once that infants were of the church and it is not repealed therefore it is so now To which I answer by granting t was so from Abrahams time and downward to Christ for before that time all the pairs he takes doth not and all the braines he hath in his head cannot produce the least sollid proof of such a thing for all that Church and the materials of it were a ceremony and a type and never the viler for that as Mr. Ba. foolishly fancies p. 59. of the church under Christ t was so in that outward typicall covenant that God made concerning an earthly Canaan with the natural feed of Abraham in the loines of Isaac and Iacob not Ismael Gen. 17. 20. 21. nor any of his seed by Keturah Gen. 25. 1. 6. upon the performance of certain carnal ordinances as circumcision and the rest of the ordinances of Divine service pertaining to that covenant which circumcision bound them to till the time of reformation Heb. 9. but that therefore t is so now in the church under the Gospel-covenant that was typified by the other I utterly deny whose heavenly inheritance and spirituall seed of Abraham i. e. believers born of God by faith in Christ answer as the Anti-type to that earthly Canaan and fleshly seed of Abraham and before which the type is fled away for all the ceremonialls of that law are vanisht among which this admitting of fleshly babes was one and what it pointed at is shewed abundantly in Anti-babism which may serve as an answer also to his fourteenth argument for their present membership where if the law of infant-Church-membership were ceremonial he bids us shew what it tipified the membership therefore of infants which belonged onely to that particular Church of the Jewes which was also the whole universal visible Church that God then had upon earth unlesse we shall dream with Mr. Baxter of more particular visible Churches then that of the Jewes during its standing different from it in form order and constitution which together with that made up some one universal visible of which infants were members first as he dotes and then secondarily of that particular which conceit of his concerning such a universal visible is a meer invisible chimaera for who ever saw any visible Church or people whom God visibly inchurched and gave his oracles to besides Israel of whom it is said God dealt in that particular as he did not with any other Nations suffering all others to walk after their own waies Act. 14. 16. nor can there be now any universall visible Church but what is made up of the particular visible Churches so that a person must first be a member of some particular Congregation before he can be of that universal the Membership I say of infants that belonged to that Church onely which was to be National and tipical of that true holy nation i. e. all the saints where ever scattered is now repealed nor can any of that Mr. Ba. syllogizes to us evince the contrary He tells us that if it be repealed then either in justice or mercy to infants but it is in neither saith he p. 38. Ergo. he falls a proving the Minor but with his leave I shall make bold to deny the Major it was neither better nor worse as to the whole species of infants it was severity to unbelieving Jewes goodnesse to believing Gentiles but t was not done with any such special respect to infants in their â—…onage as that if it had stood the whole species of infants through the world would have been much the better for such a meer titular thing as membership in the Church unlesse that membership would Ipso facto have more intitled them to heaven nor now it s taken away are sucking infants ere the worse for saving the great dignity that you deem to ly in the bare title of being a member of the visible Church whether they dy before your admission of them or just after if in infancy their salvation is for that neither more nor lesse and if they live to years as they are then are no longer infants and no neerer heaven for their being baptized when they were infants unlesse they repent and believe the Gospell so repenting and believing it they are as capable then of heaven though they were not as if they had been baptized and in bare church-member ship from the womb this therefore is petty reasoning indeed as Mr. T. calls it see Mr. Ba. 40. His second third fourth fifth six Arguments are all out of Rom. 11. which place as I
and that shall be a little examined First if they say saith he that the Kindome of Christ is not here meant Christs church they speak against the constant phrase of Scripture which calls Christs Kingdome his Church et conversim Christ is King and saviour of the same society what is Christs Kingdom but his church To which I answer Christs Kingdome is the whole world as well as his church And Secondly that he is King and Saviour of all men in some sense as well as of that same society And Thirdly that it is not against the constant phrase of Scripture to say by Christs Kingdome here is not meant his church for â—…hough it is true by his Kingdome is sometimes exprest his church et retro by his church is meant his Kingdome in a special and restrictive sense yet not constantly there being many places where the word Kingdome of Christ is taken in a larger sense as signifying not the church but the whole world O bad 21 the Kingdome i. e. Monarchy of the whole earth shall be the Lords i. e. Christs so Dan. 7. the Kingdome i. e. Dominion Monarchy and greatness of the Kingdome under the whole heaven is given to the son of man and the Saints yea his Kingdom is over all he shall rule the Nations govern and judge the whole world in righteousnesse Oh saith Mr. Ba. the Kingdome of Christ is more large and more speciall but here it cannot be meant of his kingdom in the larger sense nor as he ruleth common societies and things for so saith he the Kingdomes of this world were ever the Lords and his Christs and it could not be said that they are now become so To which I answer First that in granting what he here does that Christs kingdome is taken sometimes in a larger sense then for the church he contradicts himself above where he saies it is the constant phrase of Scripture to call Christs Kingdome his church and what is Christs kingdome but his church Secondly whereas he saies the Kingdomes of this world were ever the Lords and his Christs in the larger sense as taken for his Government and Rule I grant de jure Christ hath been Lord of the whole earth a long time but de facto he is not King so as actually to reign over the whole earth as ere long he shall do i. e. at his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 1. to this very day but in that indeed i. e. when he comes he shall be King Monarch over all the earth and rule with a rod of iron over the Nations and judge the world in righteousnesse together with his Saints who hath been judged in unrighteousnesse by the Nations and Rulers hitherto Zach. 14. Dan. 7. Act. 17. P. 2. Rev. 2. then he shall be in point of execution as before by commission and really and actually as now intentionally King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19. but till then as yet a little while and his Kingdome comes to his hand and the Kingdomes of the world do thus become his for the work of recovery of his right is now very hot in fieri and will not be long before it be in facto esse till then he hath been an underling and other Lords besides him have had dominion over him in his and also over the whole earth which is his and over the Kingdomes of this world which de jure are his but specially that servus servorum dominus dominorum the Pope and CCClergy that are the whore that hath reigned in three divisions over the earth between whom and Christ the great justle now is in all christendome whether he or they that by permission have had it so long from Christ who onely hath the commission for it shall be King of Kings and Lord of Lords hitherto Christ hath reigned in the world as Charles the second hath reigned in England and no otherwise i. e. hath reigned in the hearts of a few of his friends and followers But I perceive the Gospel or good news of the Kingdome of Christ coming which is to be preached more had more before the end is yet a riddle to Mr. Ba. and though I hope it will be if seeing he will see yet t is not yet given him to know the mystery and manner of Christs Kindome Thirdly whereas he saies that the Kingdom taken in the larger sense i. e. for the world cannot be meant here but the church onely by this phrase the Kingdomes of the Lord and his Christ I strongly assert that of all places in Scripture the word Kingdomes of Christ cannot here be construed for the church that the church cannot be meant in that phrase but the Kingdomes in the largest sense i. e. the whole world and directly oppositly to Mr. Ba. who saies it is the church I disprove his opinion thus First If by the kingdomes of Christ be meant the Church then it must be thus read viz. the Kingdomes of this world are become Christs Church but what an absurdity must that be specially with Mr. Bax. above all men who so strenuously contends that by the word Kingdoms of this world is meant not in part only but the whole kingdom for to hold that by that phrase the Kingdomes of this world is meant all the kingdomes upon the earth taken wholly and not Synechdochically for a part of those kingdomes onely and that by the kingdom of Christ the Church onely is to make the sense thus viz. the whole world is become Christs Church therefore it cannot be so but thus and so all the circumstances of the text do evince for it is spoken of Christs raign over all the world in the latter daies after the seventh Trumpet hath sounded and not over all his Church onely and of Christs taking to himself ver 17. that great Monarchy power kingdome or greatnesse and glory of his reign which before he permitted to be in the hands of the Dragon beast and whore so that they reigned over the whole earth and the saints too in rigour and unrighteousnesse Rev. 13. Rev. 17. ult I say it must be thus viz. the Kingdomes of this world the Kingdomes under the whole heaven the Monarchy of the whole Earth is now come into Christs own hands or the Government over all is now actually on his shoulders Besides what will Mr. Bax. gain more by his sense of that Scripture towards the proof of his infant-membership then I for the membership of heathen infants then for the Church membership of the whole world if I were minded to plead for it if the Kingdomes of this world wholly taken none excluded do become the Church of Christ then all men as well as infants must be Church-members on that account Besides he speaks as de futuro what shall be under the seventh Trumpet therefore if it were to be taken as Mr. Bax. imagines that the Kingdomes of this world infants as well as men are now become Christs Church then it would
off so many infants together with their wicked parents by meer temporal death and to make amends as it were for all the slaughters that he made of innocent infants with their rebellious fathers in the daies of the law unlesse in liew thereof he grant some infants of faithful men to be members of his visible Churches and in visible fellowship with them in the daies and ages of the Gospel Who sees not the weaknesse the wretchednesse of this consequence yet so it is with Mr. Ba. that God is more prone to severity then mercy if he now admit no infants into the visible Church under the Gospel except saith he it be proved that God giveth them some greater mercy out of the Church To which exception of his I say thus First it need not be proved and yet his consequence will prove false for if the meer admitting of some faithful mens infants into the visible Church will so make up the matter as to salve God from censure of pronesse to severity rather then mercy and magnifie his mercy so as to make it appear to be that he delights in more then judgement notwithstanding his severity in slaying so many infants with the parents then God magnfied his mercy in that kind of way sufficiently to make amends for that severity in the very time of the law it self forasmuch as then he did admit for 2000 years together not onely some infants of faithfull men but in all that time innumerable infants of unfaithful and wicked men for such were the Jewes for the most part in their several generations and yet such infants your selves would not now have admitted to stand in the visible and national Church of the Jewes And so there is no need of any admittance of infants now in order to such an end as satisfaction for his severity to some infants of old into visible fellowship with Gospel Churches Secondly to satisfie him further it may easily be proved that God giveth infants if they die in their infancy unbaptized and not inchurched for if they live to years they may be baptized all and inchurched too if they believe a greater mercy then that of meer church-membership here on earth for they having never committed any actuall sins whereby to deserve exemption charity teaches us to believe and hope thus much saies the Ashford Pamphlet of all such that of such is the kindom of heaven One thing more I cannot but take notice of in this passage not in way of contradiction to Mr. Ba. but in way of discovery how contradictory unto him some of his brethren are who mannage the same cause with him that they may either close more handsomely together or else excuse us if we believe none of them till they be agreed more among themselves for whereas Mr. Baxter layes it down as the manner of old that when the parents sinned and broke Gods covenant so as to deserve to be discovenanted thereupon the children that had right to stand by the Quondam membership of their parents were wont to be discovenanted dischurched and sometimes destroyed with them I find the fornamed Dr. Channell of another mind for when in a second publique discourse with him at Petworth on Ianuary 5. 1651. I asserted his practise to be contradictory to his own judgement forasmuch as his judgement was that believers infants onely were in covenant with God and in right to Church-membership and baptism and yet his practise to baptize all or most of the infants in his parish not one of many of whose parents he judged to be believers as appeaed by his refusing communion with them for many years together in the supper He gave answer to this purpose viz. that the parent i. e. believing or else the child hath no right secundum te O Presbyter may sin himself out of covenant again out of all communion in the Church and be damned and yet the child stand still in right to baptism and membership which he had by the faith of those parents which as it thwarts the wonted wayof discovenanting dischurching of children with the parents so it contradicts himself more another way though he evade his first contradiction by it to say that believing parents for such onely say your selves give right to their infants to be baptized may sinne themselves out of covenant and be damned for though as I then told him he preached it in saying thus yet I am perswaded he holds no falling from grace More things I take notice that that Dr. and Mr. Bax. knock heads in but I spare to do more then advise them to accord better with each other but specially each of them with himself or else as implicitly as men have believed them heretofore they will try them ere long and scarce trust them any longer His 20 Plain Scripture-lesse proof for infant churchmembership and baptism he drawes as he saies from Deut. 28. 4. 18 32. 41. blessed shall they be in the fruit of their body that keep the covenant and cursed in the fruit of their body i. e. that break the covenant c. he may well say he drawes it for there 's no such thing as he draws flowes freely from that or any other Scripture he produces he drawes indeed but at such a distance that I see nothing followes from thence at all he does not fall flatly upon it nor deal down rightly with the text alledged nor doth he interpret the blessing and cursing to be membership and non-membership so as to say that by blessed shall be the fruit of thy body is meant thus i. e. thy infants shall be inchurched and by cursed shall 〈◊〉 of thy body thus i. e. thy infants shall be dischurched for that had 〈◊〉 â—…lpably to pervert it but he keeps a loof off from it and doth not drawâ—…â—…o the heart and center of it but syllogizes in a circumference and fetches it from far for fear I think least it should fly in his face The Argument that I fetch hence is this That doctrine which maketh the children of the faithfull to be in a worse condition or as bad then the curse Deut. 28. maketh the children of covenant breakers to be in is false doctrine But the doctrine which â—…denyeth the children of the faithfull to be visible Churchmembers doth make them to be in as bad or worse condition then is threatned by the curse Deut. 28. Therefore The Minor of which Syllogism is most false for infants may be both unbaptized and no visible Church members and yet be in a better condition then such as are under the curse and the captivity threatned Deut. 28. and so are all these to whom baptism and admittance into the visible Church is delayed by your selves who in the Church of England in old time were wont to defer the baptizing of all infants to two times in the year viz. Easter and Whitsuntide and so are all those also to whom we deny it for both those to whom you delay it and
peraphrasticall amplification and genuine application thereof so that both you and the World may read as it were in text letters your own abstâ—…act from that of mine when you please and signing the Titles of the CCClergy whether true or surreptitious with three letters in the front as C. C. C. P P P c. most commonly when I speak of â—…hem in the lump to denote the three P P Parts into which that great City B B Babylon which they make stands divided I proceed as followeth That Herestes must be the Apostle hath said yet it makes no more for a tolleration of them in the true Church I mean though others mean in the civil state than that of our Saviour of offences saying foreseeing no question how by means of the Clergies crying out Heresie Heresie Schism against the way of truth being once turned aside to Heresie themselves the world would be offended at his little ones for walking in it They must come but wo to the man by whom they come the Apostle reckons Herestes among the works of the flesh Idolatry Witchcraft c. Gal. 5. 20. which alone to argument sufficient against the Patronagâ—… and Invitation of them unless withal license in the true Church should be given to all other carnal sins why should the Church of God upon Earth make much of those against whom the Kingdome of Heaven shall be â—…ut her pale is not so strong to keep them out from breaking in upon her like wild bores and wolves to spoil and wast her but her good will should not be so great to them as to wellcome them in to her fellowship till they repent from their dead works of superstition bloody tenet of persecution for cause of conscience worshipping God after mens traditions blaspheming the name of God and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven trampling the holy City Heresie Schism from the primitive truth c Neverthelesse how beit to tolerate and harbour Hereticks in communion with them whilest they oppose the true way of Christ would be an error and an evill too intollerable in a true Church of Christ yet I hold that opinion of the C C Clergy not onely intollerably Heretical in it self but intollerably hurtful also to themselves that Hereticks may not be tolerated in a civil state for if Fines Prisons Banishments Racks Wâ—…ips Tortures headings hangings burningâ—… and such like punishments with the civil sword were the due of every Heretick and Schismatick in the faith as the C C Clergy have for ages and Generations born the world in hand that they are to the causing of all these their national Church censures to be inflicted on the Saints when they have once blindly sentenct them to be Schismaticks to the civil power if this I say were the due of every Heretick or Schismatick and every true Heretick and Schismatick had his due too good Lord how have the C C Clergy condemned themselves out of their own mouthes to devastation when the civil powers shall find them to be the Arch-Hereticks in the world if taking them at their word they shall do with them as they say they ought to do in this case concerning others but God forbid that with what judgement they judge they should be judged and with what measure they meet it should be measured to them again at our suggestion if their own Cheek-by-jole carriage to the Stern-men of the State do not pull it unavoidably upon themselves yea verily though as far as those that oppose themselves against the truth of Christ they may well challenge the name of Schismaticall Hereticks and though Amen might justly be said by the Magistrate in this point to the opinion of Gangraena and his Gang and might Amen be said to his wise wishes as concerning us who teach and practise baptism in its primitive fashion we could expect to be suffered in the Common-wealth no more then High-way Murderers yet dare we not desire their extirpation out of any of their native rights in the several states wherein they are nor such uncivill suppression of them meerly for their erroneous Tenets as they have sollicited the higher powers to concerning us we have not so learned Christ nor would they if they had heard him and had been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus for howere it comes to passe that the C C Clergy whose own the worst would he if that were true and execution done accordingly are so besotted as to believe that Hereticks and Schismaticks from the faith men of false waies worships religions though elsewise never so peaceable and innocent must not onely be dischurched but discommunicated also from the patronage of the civil power and cut off from the priviledges of other Subjects yet neither Christ nor any of his Apostles as from him gave any order for such rigid rejection indeed the Apostle Paul wills in his Epistle to Titus cap. 3. who was a Church officer that a Heretick after a second and third admonition be rejected i. e. from the Church and Gal. 5. 12. wishes that they were cut off from the Church that did trouble the Church and Rev. 2. 20. 21. the Church of Thyatira was reproved for suffering that woman Iezebel which calleth her self a prophetesse to teach and seduce his servants to fornication i. e. false worships c. but it will noâ—… follow therefore that such may not have license to live civilly in civil states for the weapons of the Churches warfare wherewith she is to fight against Heresies and which she is ever to have in readinesse to revenge all disobedience to Christ by are noâ—… carnall 2 Cer. 10. 4 5 6. not such as are used by the officers of States but onely spirituall as admonition reproof and in case of obstinacy putting out from among them delivering up to Satan and not delivering up to the secular power as the Popish Priesthood used to do when any of their creatures specially of their Clerico-creatures turned Hereticks i. e. departed from their Heresies to the truth saying pray take him into your power and be merciful to him meaning hang or burn him for a Heretick The Church I say is neither to use the carnal weapons of the State nor yet to stirr up the State so to use them on 〈◊〉 and truths behalf as to imprison sine hang burn or banish false worshippers unbelievers misbelievers or Hereticks further then they are withall as by meer unbelief they are not offenders against the civil State I find the Lord Christ foretelling by himself and his Apostles that for the most part the more is the pitty the Rulers Kings Governours and Princes of the world would be such enemies against his Gospel that his Disciples should be hald before them as evill doors for his names sake Matth. 10 18. that not many mighty and noble men would own his truth 1 Cor. 1. 26. that rich men would oppresse the Church and draw them before their Judgement seats and
the Gods of the earth to judge all men that are under you whether in the Church or of the world in earthly cases and matters of meer secular concernment that you are not the Gods of heaven that is the Church so far as to meddle at all as earthly judges to correct in those meer heavenly cases and though the PPPriests perswade you t is a piece of acceptable service to God to let your whole Nations be by law from you compelled to be their Churches that as you civilly so they uncivilly may go hand in hand Moses Aron like share with you in subjecting violently all souls your selves too to their SSSacer dot all suggestion in soul cases that you may lawfully punish Hereticks into the hearing of them banish them into a blind obedience to their directions yet I am bold in the Lord to assure you that as you should have little thank from him should you force men to such a worship as for the matter of it is according to Christs will against their own so will he once check you in wrath if you repent not in time for forcing all men to worship after the CCClergies will against Christs for as the first is at best but a piece of honest ignorance so this last is at least no lesse then a piece of divellish darknese Rev. 13. 7. 8. Hearken no more therefore O ye the Magistrates as you respect the true good of your Republiques to the clamors of your CCClergy when they cry out to you to hunt out Hereticks i. e. such as after the way they call heresie so worship God where by they run you unavoidably if you run after them upon certain ruine and on the hazard of fighting against God and then wo be you of rooting the wheat his Saints out of the Field the world in which it ought to stand and the tares too even till the harvest and of infinit cumbrances inconveniences and brangles about Church matters wherein as Magistrates you are not so immediately concâ—…rned as they dictate to you who are such a contentious sect of men both with all others and each with other about one Church businesse or other continually that t is impossible now specially since truth is returning home which they have so long driven from her own border but that the nations will be imbrued in their own and one anothers blood in defence of their fopperies if you engage as oft as they would egge you to it on their behalfs What animosities have ever been between the Temporalty and these Lords Spiritual What quarrels and jarres between the Fryers of several orders what whole Countrey clashes and consumptions have been made in Germany between the Calvinists and Lutherans what inveteracy between the CCClergy of the severall FFFormes of Government which though they can agree all against the true Clergy or heritage of God yet hate each other unto the death yea oh the infinite wrangâ—…gs and little lesse then divellish dissentions wherewith as with a sire they have wasted all corners of their CCâ—…Christendomes that they have been more like the places of burying dead bodies then like the houses of Christs flock yea they have consumed themselves in their miserable burning whilest in their holy wars they have called 〈◊〉 â—…everally the civil sword to the ultimate determining of their spiritual controversiâ—…s and made carnal weapons the instruments of their churches warfare as if the best way to coâ—…vert the nations to Christ were to convert them to dust and ashes how have they sâ—…amed upon occasion of different opinions so as to tear and rend people to pieces and engage them their princes at swords point for their lusts and wills sake how have they cast the people from one element to another one falie way unto another till they have made whole Countreys Cities and their own Academies Aâ—…aes feild of blood and like foaming and â—…aging waves of the Sea shâ—…ving together for the dictates of that kind of Clergy still that they are the Sâ—…ries of insomuch that some observant spirits have wisht to dy and depart this life among other ends for this that they might be delivered from the sight of the implacable hatred of Divines all which thiâ—…gs also do take off the Magistracy from a tendance to their main businesse of relieving the oppressed judging the fatherlâ—…sse pleading for thâ—… widâ—…w and the works of justice and mercy among their people which God will have and noâ—… sacrifice and take beâ—…ter from them then the improvement of themselves to set up either the Pâ—…pe the Prelate or the Prâ—…yier or establish any form of Religion whatsoever by a law On the eâ—…re that the Powers would consider it though I fear me mâ—…st nations in Châ—…e will not till they pay dear for theiâ—… learning and leave their people free to clâ—…use what God they will serve and which way they will serve the true God by suffering all waies to stand before them in the world and be objected fairly to their tryall then shâ—…ll truth be sure to be told them as well as errour and leave them without excuse that shall rejectâ—… Mean while as to the civil interest of the whâ—…e and each pâ—…re of heir Commonweaâ—…s to see strictly to it that they atâ—…end contiâ—…lly on 〈◊〉 very thing for which they are when once the ordâ—…nence of men by their election the ordinance and ministers of God and to be â—…red to as both the ordinance of God and man and that for both conscience sâ—…ke and the Lords that they attend upon the protection of all people from being injâ—…d one by â—…er in any cases pertaining to externalls and the maintaining â—…f outwaâ—… peace civilâ—…ty and good mâ—…ners in all men to the whole and to each other by punishâ—…g â—…vil dâ—…s of such a nature and rewarding of such as do well without parâ—…ality or respect to any persons or parties in which cases Reguâ—… est parâ—… subâ—…is â—…t deâ—…llare superboâ—… thus doing they must necessarily maintain true Religâ—…n too so far as they are called as Magistrates to maintain it whilst when all states â—…ave trod it down under pretence of maintaining it that supprest all as Schism that suited not with the Monarchiall minds of the men called CCClergy this state sets it up as far as men may or can set it up that suffers it to live and thrive among the false If there be any matter of wrong or wicked lewdness done by any as well members of the true Church as any other reason wills and therefore no Christians but CCClergy man and their creatures whose way is against reason will be against it that such should suffer according to the law in that behalf whether unto bonds or unto banishment or unto confiscation or unto death without benefit of the Clergy who have benedicted all benefits to themselves and not be favoured because members or because Ministers of such Churches neither is it fit
he saies of us in another so may we of them in this case hos suo ingulamus gladio we may wound them with their own dudgeon dagger for if ignorant and unlearned men are not fit to make ministers then not onely their Laâ—…y which are millions are unlearned for the most part and so by Dr. Featleys own confession unfit to be teachers of truth but even multitudes of their CCClergy too for it is none of the least brands saies Dr. Featley p. 164. of the Roman Antichrist that he filled the Church with a number of ignorant Mass Priests Monks and Friars who blind guids as they were of the blinder people fell with them into the ditch of Superstition Heresie and Sensuallity and say I the English Antichrist i. e. the Arch-bishop of Canterbury a chip of the old block that was an Apprentice at Rome in old'n time till he set up for himself here and became indeed what the old Caiaphas Pope Urbane the second prophesied of him in a complement about 1099 little thinking then God wot that he would serve him such a trick as to set up his posts against his posts and take away his custome and trading here in England Papatus alterius Orbis this English Antichrist I say hath multiplyed many teachers and feeders that are far better fed then taught in matters of either God or man and as few Scholars as are among the true Churches if there were none the truth would stand without them and God delights in no mans legs but if there were need of that to the making ministers of the Gospel there is proportionably fewer among your churches considering how little Christs flocks is and how voluminous the fold of the WWWhore and how few truly are so that go under that name among the people with whom haud tam cult us quam cucullus facit monachum for though you talk of secular learning yet if that were so necessary to a Minister as the Ministry say it is it would not onely cut off Peter and Iohn from that denomination who were though better gifted yet lesse learned in that sense then the least of you but most of you CCClergy also among whom through out your whole dominion of Christndome there 's few Country Curates are well studied Scholars indeed in Logick and other arts and sciences and as for the tongues and original languages of the Scriture I speak it to the shame of the Ministry who unminister themselves in saying it is so necessary there is scarce five of 20. know the originall in the old Testament and not twenty to 5 so well as you should do in the new and as for the onely true learning and original of all wisdom the fear of God growth in grace and the knowledge of Christ and misteries of his kingdom and the spirit that Christ promised to his people to teach them all things which it were better for you by all your learning that you had more of unlearned Pâ—…ter himself may truly tearm the most of you such unlearned ones as wrest the Scripture to your own destruction Act. 4. 13. 2 Pet. 3. 16. yea so ungifted are the most of you so much as to pray and then well may you be to preach and that is to be unlearned as to the ministers office that unlettered or at least unspirited Artificers may be the proper name of some Clergy men as well as of the teaching tradesmen Dr. Featly speaks of for these receive the holy spirit that gifts them to it but not many of the Clergy are gifted to pray extempore without book if I onely said this you would not believe me but sith your great Patron Dr. Featly to whom you send us is my Patron as to this you must believe it whether you will or no unlesse you would have us believe him whom you will not believe yoâ—…r selves who gives this good reason p. 95. why its necessary to have set formes for the Ministers of the church of England to pray by if they pray at all in publique for there is not one Minister saith he or Curate of an 100 specially in Country Villages or Parochial churches who hath any tolerable gift of conceived as they term them or extempore prayers which if so you have smal reason to cry out of others as illiterate yea verily your selves will appear to be as the Anabaptists are stil'd by you an illiterate and Sottish generation in things principally pertaining to Christ and to Ministers of Christ to be skil'd in for that indeed is to be truly learn'd or unlearn'd in quoquo genere viz. to be raw or ready either in that which men supremely pretend to excell in as the Divine doth to excell other men in the things of God or else in that which is most excellent in it self and most worthy our being learn'd in as the highest and most excellent objects that are knowable being Christ and the mysteries of his kingdome those consequently are the best Scholars in the world that are most deeply insighted thereinto though elsewise never so ignorant Si Christum nescis nihil est si caetera noscis Si Christum noscis nihil est si caetera nescis Now count which of these two waies you will the greatest Clerks will appear to be the greatest Novices the greatest Doctors the greatest Dunces the greatest Schoolmen the least Schollars the prime of the Priesthood the prime Ignor amus's that the Christian earth doth carry for howbeit O yee PPPrists some of you for the most of you will never be mad with much learning even surfeit on inferiour literature viz. arts tongues c. andare taller then other men by the head in the reading of History Oratory pieces of pibald Poetry and such like yet as to the misterious plain Gospel wherâ—…in are hid and whence are handed out unto us the treasures of eternity in earthen vessels i. e. the homely base foolish weak wayes and dispensations which are of Christs chusing which it concerns Christs Ministers of all men to be more clear in thâ—…n in any thing else they are low and therefore too high and wonderful for you high studied men to reach to they are far about out of your sight Yea I think thee O father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hidest these things because seeing they will not see them from the wise and prudent and revealest them unto babes yea O Lord how great is the multitude of meer Humanists that feed onely upon the common Theory of that Theology they have framed to themselves and relish nothing but what is of man how are thy depths even thy downright deliveries of soul saving truth in plainess of speech by the mouths of stammerers stark dunceâ—…y to them how will not a poor marred mocked misreputed Saviour and gospel in any wise down with them who did of old and who do still stand out most stiffly against thy gospel O Christ but the proud self conceited Pharisees Priests and