Scriptures that any of the Fathers of that time had heard of that Revelation I do not say they had not heard but I say the Scriptures do not so much as hint they had and though the Scriptures tell us that in that time Righteousness was preached by the Spirit yet they do not in the least tell us that Christ was preached by it And surely had the declaration made concerning Christ in the Third Geneâ—â—â—… been in the Account of the Scriptures a Covenant or Promise of him to Adam c. I should much admire that the Apostle would insist so highly as he doth on the being of the Promise of Salvation by Christ for but some hundreds of years before the Law when had this been so he might have insisted on thousands and the Apostle Peter dates the Covenant of Grace from Abraham Act. 2. 25 26. and before him the Psalmist Psal 105. 8 9 42. But secondly on supposal that it had pleased God to transact with Adam or any of the old Fathers before Abraham in way of Covenant and Promise for grace Eternal Life and Salvation yet that Covenant and Promise could not be the Covenant of Abraham in which it pleased God to Promise to be a God to him particularly and to his Seed after him For the Covenant of Abraham could not be before Abraham himself existed And therefore seeing the believing Gentiles do not claim Eternal Life and Salvation from by and under Adam or any other of the Antient Fathers before Abraham nor by vertue of any Covenant Transaction that hath passed between God and them or any of them but only from by and under Abraham by vertue of the Covenant of Promise made with him It is as clear that the Termes Conditions and Methods on and in which it pleased God to transact with all or any of those old Fathers be those termes and methods any whatever they are nothing to us as that the Termes Conditions and Methods he is pleased to transact upon with Abraham in the Covenant of Promise are all in all to us That is in plain English That it is nothing in the least to us believing Gentiles whether the Fathers before the Flood or after the Flood before Abraham were in Covenant or not in Covenant were signed or not signed seeing we claim not from by and under them as Heirs to them but it is much to us on what Termes it pleased God to transact and deal with Abraham and under what Conditions and with what duties Abraham did receive the Covenant and Promise whether himself and his must be signed or not signed seeing it is from by and under him and by vertue of the Covenant of Promise made with him that we do claim and hold And surely if we do claim and hold in by and under Abraham by the Deed and Charter made to him we must also claim and hold as he did under the Duties and Conditions in that Deed and Charter and now is it not to deny the Conclusion after Concession of the Premises for you to deny Believers and their Children must be signed when yet you do acknowledge they are under Abrahams Covenant which as I have proved requires such signing Ay! but you will say the Patriarchs were in the Covenant of Grace before Abraham all as much as we and yet signing had no use among them and therefore the Incumbence and Obligation to sign and to be signed by vertue of the Covenant being founded not on the substance of it but on the Administration cannot be Immutably and everlastingly the same And indeed it must be acknowledged that signing was not in use among the Fathers before Abraham at least not in the Account of the Scriptures the Scriptures being deeply silent touching any such thing but then the Scripture is as silent touching any Covenant transaction made with those Fathers as it is touching signing by vertue of such a Covenant So that you are too positive Sir and without Book to affirm them as much in Covenant as we and their Children as Holy by vertue of a Covenant transaction as ours But supposing though not granting a Covenant transaction to have passed between God and the Fathers before Abraham for Grace Eternal Life and Salvation through the Messiah and supposing also no signing by vertue of that Covenant for all that space of time which however on supposal there was such a Covenant is a hardness to think yet in regard that Covenant could not be the Covenant of Abraham though there was no signing then the Obligation to sign and to be signed by vertue of the Covenant of Abraham which as I have shewed doth indispensibly and necessarily require it is as Immutably and Everlastingly the same and in the same Scriptural Sence as the very Covenant it self is so It is for Everasting though not from Everlasting it is Everlasting à Parte Post though not à Parte ante I will Establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an Everlasting Covenant c. Everlasting not a parte ante as from Everlasting for before Abraham was this Covenant could not be between God and Abraham to be a God to him and to his Seed after him and therefore it must be understood a parte post as a Covenant to Everlasting And in this sence the Obligation and Duty of the Covenant is as capable of being Everlasting as the Covenant it self which was the third particular to be demonstrated What I have discoursed already might justly supersede any further answer to what you offer in the following Paragraph about the Church Membership of Infants on occasion of my saying that the Church is one though the Testaments be not and that Children were Members not only of the Legal but of the Gospel Church and that for above Four Hundred Years before the Law It being Gospel that was Preached to Abraham for you say on that occasion that the Gospel was Preached too to Adam at the time that he was told that the Seed of the woman should break the head of the Serpent But I have proved that it was not told as you express it to Adam but to the Serpent as being spoken not by way of Promise to the one but of denunciation of a Sentence on the other nor in the Account of the Scriptures was the Gospel Preached to Abel Enoch Noah c. nor were they in the Account of the Scriptures in and under any Covenant of Grace for Eternal Life and Salvation much less in and under the same Covenant with believing Abraham and his true Seed The Covenant of Grace in the Promise of the Messiah for Salvation and Eternal Life being in the Account of the Scriptures first transacted with believing Abraham and no otherwise And here by the way observe as a matter of no small moment that Almighty God did no sooner in the Account of the Scriptures transact with man in way of Covenant for Eternal Life and
AN ARGUMENT FOR Infants Baptisme Deduced from the ANALOGY of FAITH A 〈◊〉 Harmony of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—iptures In Which In a Method wholly new and upon Grounds not commonly observed 〈◊〉 Doctrine of Infants Baptism is fully Asserted and the Objections against it are obviated By Richard Burthogge M. D. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Greenwood at the Crown in the Poultry 1684. TO THE Excellent Lady THE Lady ANNE DRAKE OF Place in Buckland Monachorum in the County of Devon Madam WHat is done in the following Letters in Defence of Infants Baptism is so justly Your Ladyships upon so many Titles that to disown it by Dedicating of Them to any Other or not to own it by not Dedicating of Them to Your Ladyship would be as great Injustice as but for your Interest in Them to do the last a Presumption The First of Them is a Second Edition of a Former sent my Adversary in which as I thought the Return he gave obliged me to do I made such Alterations Additions and Emendations as might illuminate my Principal Argument without engaging me in Matters Forraign to it And to his Rejoynder unto This as so Enlarged the Second is a Reply and those that follow are Defences to Both. My Argument is founded on that Covenant of Grace it pleased God to make with Abraham and with his Seed In which as he gave Himself and all he hath to Abraham and to his Seed so he requires what is most highly reasonable he should that Abraham and all he owned and that Abraham's Seed and all they own should be His And that in Token of being so both Abraham himself shou'd keep the Covenant by wearing the Initiating Sign thereof himself and putting it on all His that was capable of it and also that his Seed should keep it in like manner Certain it is the Seed of Abraham is as much obliged to keep the Covenant as Abraham himself Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore Thou and thy Seed after thee in their Generations And I have proved the Believing Gentiles to be That Seed so that though the Gentiles must believe to become the Seed of Abraham yet on becoming his Seed they come also under the Obligation to observe the Covenant as much as Abraham himself I have also proved That the Covenant of Abraham is the first Solemn Formal Covenant of Grace for Eternal Life and Salvation through our Lord Christ that in Account and Reckoning of the Scriptures it pleased God to make with Man and consequently that the First Separate and Instituted Church was then appointed in the Family of Abraham So that from the very Beginning that it pleased God to Establish and Ratifie his Covenant and to Constitute and Frame a Church as did Orâ—â—â—n the Signing of the Aâ—â—â—â— so he did the Singing of Infants Therein laying the Foundations of the Common-wealth of Israel in the Membership of Children as well as in that of the Parents God never Constituted any Formal Church until he had made a Formal Covenant and the Sign of the Covenant is the Rite of Initiation into the Church None comes into the Latter but by the Former and Baptism is such a Sign I do not say That Baptism is come in the Place of Circumcision I know too well the use is made of that Expression though in it self and as meant it be most Innocent and Inoffensive But I say It cannot be denyed that as Circumcision was the Initiating Rite and Sign before the Coming of Christ so that Baptism is after it And that Now to dedicate and give a Person to God visibly and solemnly is by that Sign and Rite to Matriculate him that is to Enter and Initiate him into the Church And now Madam Is not the Baptism of Infants in the Notion I have of it a thing of High and Spiritual Nature and of great Significancy When it is not meerly Baby-sprinkling and Sealing to a Blank as some do phrase it But done in token of our Dedicating of Them unto God and in Evidence and Token that they are His. All Delivery and Surrender must pass with some Formality some Rite and Baptism is that Formality that Rite by which we Christians do pass over and assign our selves and all our Children to God The fair Stating and Illustrating the mentioned Points in which I beat a Path but little trodden is mainly the Business of the Letters of which I make a Humble Offering to Your Ladyship In writing which next to the Zeal and Deference that I ow'd to Truth I propounded to my self no greater Satisfaction than the Occasion they would give me of gratifying an Ambition I have ever had to Publish my self Madam Your Ladyship 's most Humble and Devoted Servant Richard Burthogge ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER THE Concurrence of Events that at last prevailed upon me to engage in the Controversie of Infants Baptism managed on my part in the following Letters was so little ordinary that if any be enough to make a Providence This Reader were it proper to acquaint thee with it would I am confident even in thy Iudgement be thy Perswasion otherwise what it will appear a great One The Letters themselves do intimate on what Occasion originally they came to be Written and also how to be Published and that too without my Adversaries and therefore I need not give my self the trouble of Writing or thee the trouble of Reading more in reference to these Points Only it may not be improper to do my self this piece of Iustice to add That though I do not Publish my Adversaries Letters for that I leave to him as most proper Yet I have not been wanting in mine Own to Publish all his Arguments that concern me both in all the Strength he gives them and with all the further Inforcement my self could possibly add to them This a Iudicious Reader will easily perceive me to have done and this I did as well for that Respect and Care I owe to my own Reputation as for that I owe and pay to Truth I am of Alexander's Mind I would not steal a Victory and Truth need not It is stronger than all things I acknowledge I have received a Letter from him since my Last but that Letter as Others so little to the Purpose unless Reflections and Extravagancies be so that I do not find my self obliged to any other Answer than what in my Last is added and marked thus * and that 's but little And an understanding Reader will plainly see there was not much need of that It is but one Paragraph and two or three Words by way of Illustration Some happily may admire that in a Rich and Fruitful Subject as this is I am so barren in Citations but they may please to know that seeing a Doctrine is not true because a Multitude avouch it any more than a Custom good because a Multitude follow it I do not value Authorities in the Search and Investigation of Truth further than as they are Evidences to
it between Me and You and thy Seed because the Covenant of which Circumcision was a Sign was a Covenant between God and the Seed too as well as between God and Abraham and his Natural Family But when he saith expresly It shall be a Sign and Token then he restrains it It shall be a Sign of the Covenant between Me and You Implying that though the Covenant be also with the Seed and Circumcision was a Sign of that Covenant yet it was specially and particularly a Sign of it as transacted between God and Abraham's Natural Person and Family and so a special and particular Sign of that Oeconomy in the Natural Houshold It shall be a Sign between Me and You and not between Me and You and thy Seed And so much for the First Objection What you next offer in Objection to my Argument is That it follows not that because the Substance of the Covenant on God's Part is Immutably and Vnchangeably the same that therefore the Duty and Incumbence is also so on ours For seeing God hath Absolute Soveraignty in and over all his Creatures and hath unlimited and boundless Right as to command so to suspend and alter the Instances and Duties of their Obedience both as and when he pleases that may be the Duty of his People at one time You should have added to make it pertinent By vertue of the same Covenant and Edict and in the same Respect which is not so at another This you Confirm because else you see not how it should come to pass that for at least two thousand Years before the Time of Abraham no such Duty or Incumbence did lie on the Patriarchs particularly not on Adam on Abel on Enoch on Noah or on the other Antediluvian Fathers of whom we do not read that any of them were Signed or that they were obliged to any Sign though you say It cannot be denied that they were in the Covenant of Grace and saved by It as much as Abraham himself or any of His. So that here is an Objection and an Enforcement and Confirmation of that Objection As to the Objection viz. That it will not follow that because the Substance of the Covenant on God 's Part is immutably and everlastingly the same therefore the Duty and Incumbence on ours is also such I answer It will follow well enough if the Duty and Incumbence on our Part be founded on the Substance of the Covenant which is on God's Part as the Duty and Incumbence in dispute between us is It being I will Establish my Covenant between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an Everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy Seed after thee c. And God said unto Abraham Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore thou and thy Seed after thee in their Generations For though Almighty God be absolute Soveraign over all our Persons and also over all his own Transactions and Methods so as he may make at one time to be our Duty that which he doth not another and may transact and deal in way of Covenant with some when yet he hath not pleas'd to do so with others Yet if at any time or with any Persons he pleases to transact in way of Covenant and to confirm that Transaction by his Word and Oath the two immutable things in which it is impossible that he should Lye and also to bottom the Duty and Incumbence to which he doth oblige by vertue of that Covenant on that which is unchangably and immutably confirmed in it We can no more without a Blasphemous Imputation to him of Inconstancy and Weakness introduce him making an Alteration in the Duty than in the Promise it self seeing the Obligation to the Duty is a necessary result and emanation of the Reason of it and consequently is uncapable of being changed without a change of the Covenant the unchangable Promise of God to Abraham and to his Seed is the Foundation of the Duty lying on Abraham and on his Seed and the same Covenant as the same must alwayes have the same effects and make the same Duties Ay but then how came it to pass that Adam Abel Enoch and others the most Antient Fathers who were under the Covenant of Grace as well as Abraham and his descendants God being a God to them as well as to him did not keep the Covenant in the sign thereof if the Duty to keep the Covenant in the sign thereof be Everlastingly the same and of an unchangable nature This is your Confirmation But to manifest the Invalidity of all is said by way of Confirmation I need but to demonstrate First That though all the Fathers were saved on the account of Iesus Christ and by vertue of the Eternal Compact and Agreement between God and him he being the Everlasting Father yet contrary to what you do suppose it did not please God at least not in the Account of the Scripture to Transact with all or any of them in way of Covenant for Grace Eternal Life and Salvation before he did so with Abraham Secondly That if he had been pleased to transact with all or any of them in way of Covenant for those ends yet that Transaction could not be the Covenant of Abraham and therefore seeing the believing Gentiles do not claim the Inheritance Eternal Life and Salvation from by and under Adam Abel Enoch Noah or any other Covenanted Person or Persons before Abraham if there were any such but only from by and under Abraham nor by vertue of any other Covenant whatever made with all or any of them but only by vertue of Abrahams It is certain that the Termes which it pleased God to go upon with them in any transaction he had with them be they what they will are in account of Scripture as Little to us as those he went upon with Abraham are much And Thirdly That the Obligation to keep the Covenant Gen. 17. in the sign thereof though it were not and indeed could not be observed by all or any of the Antients before Abraham yet notwithstanding that it is in a Scriptural sence and consequently properly enough called a Duty and Obligation of immutable and unchangable nature and Everlastingly the same The first Proposition viz. That though all that ever were saved were saved by vertue of the Atonement and Propitiation made by the Blessed Jesus He being in the efficacy and vertue of his Merits and Passion the Lamb slain even from the Foundation of the World yet that at least in the Account of Holy Scripture it did not please God to transact with all or any of the antient either the Antediluvian or Postdiluvian Fathers in way of Covenant for Grace Eternal Life and Salvation before Abraham is a manifest Verity For though all the Fathers that were saved were so by some degree and kind of Faith and were so by Jesus Christ and through the Eternal Covenant as Divines call it of Redemption
between God and him and though they all did worship and honour God in way of Sacrifices in all which the Blessed Jesus the true Lamb of God was figured and represented and though Jesus Christ himself saith before Abraham was I am yet that it pleased God to transact with all or any or either of them before Abraham in way of Covenant or Promise for Eternal Life and Salvation or that Jesus Christ was Preached to them or otherwise exhibited then in Types and Figures which we are not told they understood is no where said or recorded or so much as hinted in the whole Scripture Our Saviour saith indeed that Abraham did see his day but he saith not nor do the Scriptures say that Adam Abel Enoch Noah c. saw it What might be Preached by the Spirit further then the Scriptures tell us and then the Holy Ghost is pleased in them to Reveal to us is no proper subject for our now Inquiry We are now to mind but what is Preached by the Scriptures and Recorded in them Remembring that the very silence of the Scriptures is Mystical as is evident in the case of Melchizedeck who though whatever Learned Cunaeus thought he were a Man and consequently was not really without Father without Mother without Genealogy without beginning of dayes or end of Life yet for great ends he is taken and expresly said to be so and that because nothing in the Least is written and recorded in the Holy Scriptures touching him as to these particulars And shew me any Scripture that but hints a Covenant made with Adam Abel Enoch with all or any of the Antient Fathers before Abraham or Promise made to them or any of them of Grace Eternal Life and Salvation wherein Almighty God did pass his word to be a God to them or either of them and their or either of their Seed after them I do not doubt but God was a God to them all as I doubt not that Melchisedeck had a Father Mother Genealogy beginning of dayes and end of Life but as the Holy Scriptures do no where mention any of these in Relation to Melchisedeck so they no where intimate that God before Abraham was a God to any of the Antient Fathers in a way of Covenant or promise for Grace Eternal Life or Salvation and therefore the least that can be said if we should be prevailed to acknowledge any such transaction must be seeing the Scripture is so deeply silent in it that as there is a mistery in the silence of the Scripture touching Melchisedeck so there is a Mystery in the silence of it touching any such Covenant or Promise if any such were to the Fathers and that as Melchisedeck to be a figure of the Eternal Priest must be brought in in Scripture as a man dropt out of the Clouds without any mention of Father Mother c. So likewise to the end that Abraham might be according to the Scriptures what in the Divine Council he was appointed and set up to be namely the Father of all the faithful or express Believers in Christ there must be no record in the Sacred Scriptures of any Promise of Christ before as made to any other or of any Explicit belief and Faith in him before for had there been either how could Abraham possibly be understood in the account of the Scriptures to have been the Father and so the first of all the faithful of all Believers in Christ He only is first before whom no other is Christ I deny not may have been Preached before Abraham and also promised by the Spirit but he is not Revealed in the Scriptures so to have been either Preached or Promised The Scripture is entirely silent as to any such Transaction If any such Covenant or Promise were of Christ before certainly in the account of Scripture it is as none and so must be looked on of us as none not the least impression or footstep of any such concern appearing I acknowledge the old Fathers to be said to have had faith in God but they are not said to have had any in Christ and these Faiths are so distinguished that they may be Actually divided you believe in God sayes Christ believe also in me The Old Fathers did believe in God they believed both that God was and that he was a Rewarder but Abraham did not only believe as they did in God but he also believed in Christ. If you ask me but is not God 〈◊〉 a Rewarder in and through Christ and not otherwise I answer yes and yet it is possible they might believe in God and not believe in Christ They might believe God to be a Rewarder as some Heathen do though they did not know him and therefore could not believe him to be so but in Christ That God is and is a Rewarder are Points of Natural Religion But that Christ is and God a Rewarder in Him are Points of Revelation I acknowledge that what you say is commonly taken for granted viz. That the Promise of Christ the Seed of the Woman was made to Adam And so much is true that Jesus Christ is introduced by the Psalmist as speaking of himself and saying that in the Volume of the Book or as some do render it in the Head of the book it is written of him and so though happily the Psalmist may have Aspect upon something else I grant it is Gen. 3. 15. for when it is there said that the Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head c. It must I confess be understood of Christ at least in the Mystery thus it is written of him but that Christ was promised to Adam is not written For what is written in the Volume or in the head of the Book concerning Christ is not written there as spoken by way of Promise to Adam but by way of denunciation to the Serpent and is part of the Sentence pronounced on him which if indeed it were within the hearing of Adam yet the Scripture doth not say it was so So little doth the Scripture concern Adam in that Transaction how great concern soever in reality he was to have in it So the Text Gen. 3. 14 15. And the Lord God said to the Serpent c. What he sayes to Adam is verse 17. 18 19. and of a very different nature Adeclaration I acknowledge there is of Christ from the beginning but in the Record of the Scripture that declaration is not noted as a transaction between God and Adam by way of Covenant or Promise All is said concerning it is in what did pass between God and the Serpent and some ad loc chuse to call it a Prophecy not a Promise of Christ. And it adds no little confirmation to the truth of what I have now discoursed that after the Revelation of Jesus Christ in what passed between God and the Serpent we have not for the long space of above Two Thousand Years the least Intimation in all the