perswade the Baptism of Infants but because the places admit of divers interpretations the Arguments have so many diminutions and the certainty that is in them is too fine for easie understandings I have chosen to build the ancient doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary This onely I shall observe That the words of our blessed Lord Vnless a man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven cannot be expounded to the exclusion of children but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men for if they be both necessary ingredients Water and the Spirit then let us provide water and God will provide the Spirit if we bring wood to the Sacrifice he will provide a Lamb And if they signifie distinctly one is ordinarily as necessary as the other and then Infants must be baptized or not be saved But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other and by Water and the Spirit is meant onely the purification of the Spirit then where is the necessity of Baptism for men It will be as the other Sacrament at most but highly convenient not simply necessary and all the other places will easily be answered if this be avoided But however these words being spoken in so decretory a manner are to be used with fear and reverence and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments that Infants ought not to be baptized or we ought to fear concerning the effect of these decretory words I shall onely adde two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse That the Church of God ever since her numbers are full have for very many ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been baptized in their Infancy and although in the first callings of the Gentiles the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and repenting persons and believers yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents according to the Prophecy of Isaiah Behold I will lift up my hands to the Gentiles and set up a standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Concerning which I shall not onely bring the testimonies of the matter of fact but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition or some Argument from the Fathers which will make their testimony more effectuall in all that shall relate to the Question The Author of the book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy attributed to S. Denis the Areopagite takes notice that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian Religion think it a ridiculous thing that Infants who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries should be partakers of the Sacraments and that professions and abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names He answers that Holy men Governors of Churches have so taught having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ by which answer of his as it appears that he himself was later then the Areopagite so it is so early by him affirmed that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament Concerning which it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe then like scorners deride it in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty For what undecency or incongruity is it that our parents natural or spiritual should stipulate for us when it is agreeable to the practise of all the laws and transactions of the world an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we all were included in the stipulation made with Adam he made a losing bargain for himself and we smarted for his folly and if the faults of Parents and Kings and relatives do bring evil upon their children and subjects and correlatives it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and piety But concerning making an agreement for them we finde that God was confident concerning Abraham that he would teach his children and there is no doubt but Parents have great power by strict education and prudent discipline to efform the mindes of their children to vertue Joshua did expresly undertake for his houshold I and my house will serve the Lord and for children we may better do it because till they are of perfect choice no Government in the world is so great as that of Parents over their children in that which can concern the parts of this Question for they rule over their understandings and children know nothing but what they are told and they believe it infinitely and it is a rare art of the Spirit to engage Parents to bring them up well in the nurture and admonition of the Lord they are persons obliged by a superinduced band they are to give them instructions and holy principles as they give them meat and it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their children then the Church can for men and women for they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites as the Church story tells of some and consequently are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not really converted and ineffectively baptized and the next day they may change their resolution and grow weary of their Vow and that is the most that children can do when they come to age and it is very much in the Parents whether the children shall do any such thing or no purus insons Vt me collaudem si vivo carus amicis Causa fuit Pater his Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat quid multa pudicum Qui primus virtutis bonos servavit ab omni Non solùm facto verum opprobrio quoque turpi oh hoc nunc Laus illi debetur à me gratia major Horat. For Education can introduce a habit and a second nature against which children cannot kick unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations And although it fails too often when ever it fails yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less influence into the event then in the present case and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate and less reason in the thing it self and therefore have not so much reason to be confident Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing future events and guessing at the designs of their enemies concerning which they have less reason to be confident then Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed To which I adde this consideration That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise that their children shall be
of the Christian faith because we not onely see millions of men and women who not onely believe the whole Creed onely upon the stock of their education but there are none that ever do renounce the faith of their Countrey and breeding unless they be violently tempted by interest or weakness antecedent or consequent He that sees all men almost to be Christians because they are bid to be so need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the children for whom they answer And however the matter be for Godfathers yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of Irenaeus Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad ipsam erat similitudinem Omnes n. venit per semet ipsum salvare omnes inquam qui per eum renascuntur in Deum infantes parvulos pueros juvenes seniores Ideo per omnem venit aetatem infantibus infans factus sanctificās infantes in parvulis parvulus c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it and similitude to it For he came to save all men by himself I say all who by him are born again unto God Infants and children and boyes and yong men and old men He was made an Infant to Infants sanctifying Infants a little one to the little ones c. And Origen is express Ecclesia traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit etiam parvulis dare baptismum The Church hath received a Tradition from the Apostles to give Baptism to Children And S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Fidus gives account of this Article for being questioned by some lesse skilfull persons whether it were lawfull to baptize Children before the eighth day he gives account of the whole question and a whole Councell of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed that their baptism should at no hand be deferred though whether six or eight or ten dayes was no matter so there be no danger or present necessity The whole epistle is worth the reading But besides these authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions it will not be useless to bring their discourses of them and others I mean the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after Irenaeus his argument was this Christ tooke upon him our nature to sanctifie and to save it and passed thorough the severall periods of it even unto death which is the symbole and effect of old age and therefore it is certaine he did sanctifie all the periods of it and why should he be an infant but that infants should receive the Crowne of their age the purification of their stained nature the sanctification of their persons and the saving of their soules by their Infant Lord and elder Brother Omnis enim anima eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseatur tamdiu immunda quamdiu recenseatur Every soul is accounted in Adam till it be new accounted in Christ and so long as it is accounted in Adam so long it is uncleane and we know no uncleane thing can enter into heaven and therefore our Lord hath defined it Vnlesse ye be born of water and the spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven that is ye cannot be holy It was the argument of Tertullian which the rather is to be received because he was one lesse favorable to the custome of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants which custome he noted and acknowledged and hath also in the preceding discourse fairely proved * And indeed that S. Cyprian may superadde his Symbol God who is no accepter of persons will also be no accepter of ages For if to the greatest delinquents sinning long before against God remission of sins be given when afterwards they beleive and from Baptisme and from Grace no man is forbidden how much more ought not an Infant be forbidden who being new born hath sinned nothing save onely that being in the flesh born of Adam in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of an old death Who therefore comes the easier to obtain remission of sins because to him are forgiven not his own but the sins of another man None ought to be driven from Baptism and the Grace of God who is mercifull and gentle and pious unto all and therefore much lesse Infants who more deserve our aid and more need the divine mercy because in the first beginning of their birth crying and weeping they can do nothing but call for mercy and reliefe For this reason it was saith Origen that they to whom the secrets of the Divine mysteries were committed did baptize their Infants because there was born with them the Impurities of sin which did need material absolution as a Sacrament of spiritual purification for that it may appear that our sins have a proper analogy to this Sacrament the body it self is called the body of sin and therefore the washing of the body is not ineffectual towards the great work of pardon and abolition Indeed after this absolution there remains concupiscence or the material part of our misery and sin For Christ by his death onely took away that which when he did dye for us he bore in his own body upon the tree Now Christ onely bore the punishment of our sin and therefore we shall not dye for it but the material part of the sin Christ bore not Sin could not come so neer him It might make him sick and dye but not disordered and stained He was pure from Original and Actual sins and therefore that remains in the body though the guilt and punishment be taken off and changed into advantages and grace and the Actual are received by the Spirit of grace descending afterwards upon the Church and sent by our Lord to the same purpose But it is not rationally to be answered what S. Ambrose sayes quia omnis peccato obnoxia ideo omnis aetas Sacramento idonea For it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent and most unconsenting persons and that they onely should be left without a Sacrament and an instrument of expiation And although they cannot consent to the present susception yet neither do they refuse and yet they consent as much to the grace of the Sacrament as to the prevarication of Adam and because they suffer under this it were but reason they should be relieved by that And * it were better as Gregory Nazianzen affirms that should be consigned and sanctified without their own knowledge then to dye without their being sanctified for so it happened to the circumcised babes of Israel and if the conspersion and washing the doore posts with the blood of a lamb did sacramentally preserve all the first-born of Goshen it cannot be thought impossible or unreasonable that the want of understanding in children should hinder them from the blessing of a sacrament and from being
baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea so by a double figure foretelling That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath so should all the persons of the Church Men Women and Children be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant he proved that we do not exceed them and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us nor their children ours But after this something was to remain which might not onely consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham but be as a passage from the Fathers thorough the Synagogue to the Church from Abraham by Moses to Christ and that was Circumcision which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace and to be a seal of the righteousness of faith which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males yet it was not to the females and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea yet the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes and to all that were circumcised and the Jews deliver That Sarah and Rebecca when they were adopted into the family of the Church that is of Abraham and Isaac were baptized and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel And that we may think this typical of Christian Baptism the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition that when the Messias would come there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised but should be baptized The Tradition proved true but not for their reason But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of Religion by Baptisms was used by the posterity of Noah or at least very early among the Jews besides the testimonies of their own Doctors I am the rather induced to believe because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion and they c thought Murther Incest Rapes and the worst of Crimes were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} intinctus a baptized person But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions that to baptize and to make disciples are all one and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether John's Baptism was from heaven or of men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from Heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implies also That such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by persons of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till John were but types and preparatory Baptisms and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies John's Baptism called them to believe in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand and Preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins His Baptism remitted no sins but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated the Disciples of Christ finished it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples as John did onely they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Jesus which it is not so likely John did a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms b of Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing In the Name of Iesus and at other times In the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his Resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority though with some difference of Mystery The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of John and by his Baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led onely by outward things might be the better called in and easier inticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy He sublim'd it to higher ends and adorned it with stars of Heaven He made it to signifie greater mysteries to convey greater blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper then the skin and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transferr'd the Rite to greater mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practise was made to pass into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while he
fulfilled the Law making it up in full measures of the Spirit By these steps Baptism passed on to a divine Evangelical institution which we finde to be consigned by three Evangelists Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It was one of the last Commandments the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his kingdome For he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but Vnless a man be born of Water and the holy Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises The uncircumcised childe whose flesh is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant The Manichees Seleucus Hermias and their followers people of a dayes abode and small interest but of malicious doctrine taught Baptism not to be necessary not to be used upon this ground Because they supposed that it was proper to John to baptize with water and reserved for Christ as his peculiar to baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise He sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire the Spirit appearing like a flame but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water and they did so and their successors after them every where and for ever not expounding but obeying the praeceptive words of their Lord which were almost the last that he spake upon earth And I cannot think it necessary to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments For the words are so plain that they need no exposition and yet if they had been obscure the universal practise of the Apostles and the Church for ever is a sufficient declaration of the Commandment No Tradition is more universal no not of Scripture it self no words are plainer no not the Ten Commandments and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any jealous or less discerning person it will need no other refutation but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself sees Scripture to be the Word of God and the Commandments to be the declaration of his Will But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacrament for this will highly conclude That the Precept was for ever which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings and the susception of it necessary because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the graces of the Sacrament 1. The first fruit is That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ presented unto him consigned with his Sacrament enter into his Militia give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ and in all senses that we can become his Disciples witnessing a good confession and undertaking a holy life and therefore in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are conjoyn'd in the significations as they are in the mystery it is a giving up our names to Christ and it is part of the foundation or the first Principles of the Religion as appears in S. Pauls Catechism it is so the first thing that it is for babes and Neophytes in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity Ecclesiae janua Porta gratiae primus introitus sanctorum ad aeternam Dei ecclesiae consuetudinem The gates of the Church the door of Grace the first entrance of the Saints to an eternal conversation with God and the Church Sacramentum initiationis intrantium Christianismum investituram S. Bernard calls it The Sacrament of initiation and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion and the person so entring is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one of the Religion or a Proselyte and Convert and one added to the number of the Church in imitation of that of S. Luke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God added to the Church those that should be saved just as the Church does to this day and for ever baptizing Infants and Catechumens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are added to the Church that they may be added to the Lord and the number of the inhabitants of Heaven 2. The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Covenant which is an immediate consequent of the first presentation this being the first act of man that the first act of God And this is called by S. Paul a being baptized in one spirit into one body that is we are made capable of the Communion of Saints the blessings of the faithful the priviledges of the Church by this we are as S. Luke calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ordained or disposed put into the order of eternal life being made members of the mystical body under Christ our Head 3. And therefore Baptism is a new birth by which we enter into the new world the new creation the blessings and spiritualities of the Kingdome and this is the expression which our Saviour himself used to Nicodemus Vnless a man be born of Water and the Spirit and it is by S. Paul called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the laver of Regeneration for now we begin to be reckoned in a new Census or account God is become our Father Christ our elder Brother the Spirit the earnest of our inhetance the Church our Mother our food is the body and blood of our Lord Faith is our learning Religion our imployment and our whole life is spiritual and Heaven the object of our Hopes and the mighty price of our high Calling And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us the Spirit of Grace which besides our soul and body is a principle of action of one nature and shall with them enter into the portion of our inheritance And therefore the Primitive Christians who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord usually writing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Iesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour they made it an abbreviature by writing onely the Capitals thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which the Heathens in mockery and derision made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies a Fish and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach but the Christians owned the name and turned it into a pious Metaphor and were content that they should
being illuminated we are adopted to the inheritance of sons being adopted we are promoted towards perfection and being perfected we are made immortal Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit exeat inde Semideus tactis citò nobilitetur in undis This is the whole Doctrine of Baptism as it is in it self considered without relation to rare circumstances or accidental cases and it will also serve to the right understanding of the reasons why the Church of God hath in all ages baptized all persons that were within her power for whom the Church could stipulate that they were or might be relatives of Christ sons of God heirs of the Promises and partners of the Covenant and such as did not hinder the work of Baptism upon their souls And such were not onely persons of age and choice but the Infants of Christian Parents For the understanding and verifying of which truth I shall onely need to apply the parts of the former Discourse to their particular case premising first these Propositions PART II. Of Baptizing INFANTS BAPTISM is the Key in Christs hand and therefore opens as he opens and shuts by his rule and as Christ himself did not do all his blessings and effects unto every one but gave to every one as they had need so does Baptism Christ did not cure all mens eyes but them onely that were blinde Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance that is they that lived in the fear of God according to the Covenant in which they were debtors were indeed improved and promoted higher by Christ but not called to that repentance to which he called the vitious Gentiles and the adulterous persons among the Jews and the hypocritical Pharisees There are some so innocent that they need no repentance saith the Scripture meaning That though they do need contrition for their single acts of sin yet they are within the state of grace and need not repentance as it is a conversion of the whole man and so it is in Baptism which does all its effects upon them that need them all and some upon them that need but some and therefore as it pardons sins to them that have committed them and do repent and believe so to the others who have not committed them it does all the work which is done to the others above or besides that pardon 2. When the ordinary effect of a Sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument yet the Sacrament is still as obligatory as before not for so many reasons or necessities but for the same Commandment Baptism is the first ordinary Current in which the Spirit moves and descends upon us and where Gods Spirit is they are the sons of God for Christs Spirit descends upon none but them that are his and yet Cornelius who had recieved the holy Spirit and was heard by God and visited by an Angel and accepted in his alms and fastings and prayers yet was tyed to the susception of Baptism To which may be added That the receiving the effects of Baptism before-haud was used as an argument the rather to minister to Baptism The effect of which consideration is this That Baptism and its effect may be separated and do not alwayes go in conjunction the effect may be before and therefore much rather may it be after its susception the Sacrament operating in the vertue of Christ even as the Spirit shall move according to that saying of S. Austin Sacrosancto lavacro inchoata innovatio novi hominis perficiendo perficitur in aliis citiùs in aliis tardiùs And S. Bernard Lavari quidem citò possumus sed ad sanandum multâ curatione opus est The work of regeneration that is begun in the Ministery of Baptism is perfected in some sooner and in some later we may soon be washed but to be healed is a work of a longcure 3. The dispositions which are required to the ordinary susception of Baptism are not necessary to the efficacy or required to the nature of the Sacrament but accidentally and because of the superinduced necessities of some men And therefore the conditions are not regularly to be required but in those accidents It was necessary for a Gentile Proselyte to repent of his sins and to believe in Moses Law before he could be circumcised but Abraham was not tyed to the same conditions but onely to faith in God but Isaac was not tyed to so much and Circumcision was not of Moses but of the Fathers and yet after the sanction of Moses Law men were tyed to Conditions which were then made necessary to them that entred into the Covenant but not necessary to the nature of the Covenant it self And so it is in the susception of Baptism if a sinner enters into the Font it is necessary he be stripp'd of those appendages which himself sewed upon his Nature and then Repentance is a necessary disposition If his understanding hath been a stranger to Religion polluted with evil Principles and a false Religion it is necessary he have an actual faith that he be given in his understanding up to the obedience of Christ and the reason of these is plain Because in these persons there is a disposition contrary to the state and effects of Baptism and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries Faith and Repentance that they may be reduced to the state of pure receptives And this is the sense of those words of our blessed Saviour Vnless ye become like one of these little ones ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven that is ye cannot be admitted into the Gospel-Covenant unless all your contrarieties and impediments be taken from you and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from heaven And this Proposition relies upon a great Example and a certain Reason The Example is our blessed Saviour who was Nullius poenitentiae debitor he had committed no sin and needed no repentance he needed not to be saved by faith for of faith he was the Author and Finisher and the great object and its perfection and reward and yet he was baptized by the Baptism of John the Baptism of Repentance And therefore it is certain that Repentance and Faith are not necessary to the susception of Baptism but necessary to some persons that are baptized For it is necessary we should much consider the difference If the Sacrament in any person may be justly received in whom such dispositions are not to be found then the dispositions are not necessary or intrinsecal to the susception of the Sacrament and yet some persons coming to this Sacrament may have such necessities of their own as will make the Sacrament ineffectual without such dispositions These I call necessary to the person but not to the Sacrament that is necessary to all such but not necessary to all absolutely And faith is necessary sometimes where Repentance is not and sometimes Repentance and
circumcised and if not baptized then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of for S. Paul said unto you Whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law These children therefore that were circumcised stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Laws of Ceremonies to be presented into the Temple to pay their price to be redeemed with silver and gold to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal ordinances and therefore if they had been thus left it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult they used to do it for less matters To which let this be added That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christs Ascension and S. Marks Gospel twelve years In the mean time to what Scriptures did they appeal by the analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions whence did they prove their Articles They onely appealed to the Old Testament and onely added what their Lord superadded Now either it must be said that our blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized which is no where pretended and if it were cannot at all be proved or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God and preach the Religion it is plain that by the Analogy of the Old Testament that is of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come and to have suffered they also approved the Baptism of Infants or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews of which also the Church did then principally consist 7. That Baptism which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection doth also equally consign Infants to it hath nothing that I know of pretended against it there being the same signature and the same grace and in this thing all being alike passive and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of grace and Infants have an equall necessity as being lyable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents and dying sooner then men and women and less able to complain and more apt to be pityed and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life and a speedy death infelicitate priscorum hominum with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents and therefore have as great need as any and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another 8. And after all this if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace we have nothing to relye upon but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of salvation save onely we are to adde this that because of this law Infants are not personally capable but the Church for them as for all others indefinitely we have reason to believe that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplyed but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability This we may be certain of that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation for by nature we are children of wrath and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature either therefore children must be put into the state of grace or they shall dwell for ever where Gods face does never shine Now there are but two wayes of being put into the state of grace and salvation the inward by the Spirit and the outward by Water which regularly are together If they be renewed by the Spirit what hinders them to be baptized who receive the holy Ghost as well as we If they are not capable of the Spirit they are capable of Water and if of neither where is their title to heaven which is neither internal nor external neither spiritual nor sacramental neither secret nor manifest neither natural nor gracious neither original nor derivative And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter heaven without any difference expressed or case reserved we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children but may weep as they that have no hope We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand and then it cannot miscarry and though we know nothing of the children yet we know much of Gods goodness But when God hath permitted it to us that is offered and permitted children to our ministery whatever happens to the Innocents we may well fear lest God will require the souls at our hands and we cannot be otherwise secure but that it will be said concerning our children which S. Ambrose used in a case like this Anima illa potuit salva fieri si habuisset purgationem This soul might have gone to God if it had been purified and washed We know God is good infinitely good but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness and he tempts him that leaves the usual way and pretends it is not made for him and yet hopes to be at his journeys end or expects to meet his childe in heaven when himself shuts the door against him which for ought he knows is the onely one that stands open S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants therefore he is called durus Pater Infantium though I know not why the original of that opinion should be attributed to him since S. Ambrose said the same before him as appears in his words above quoted in the margent And now that I have enumerated the blessings which are consequent to Baptism and have also made apparent That Infants can receive these blessings I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring children to Baptism If it be certain they may receive these good things by it it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety and sacriledge and uncharitableness in the world Nay if it be onely probable that they receive these blessings or if it be but possible they may nay unless it be impossible they should and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty innocents to let their crying be unpityed and their natural misery eternally irremediable and their sorrows without remedy and their souls no more capable of relief then their bodies of Physick and their death left with the sting in and their Souls without Spirits to go to God and no Angel guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and Gods Church All these are sad stories There are in Scripture very many other probabilities to