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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75851	A modest reply humbly offer'd, as an answer to, and confutation of seven arguments collected and deliver'd by Mr. Samuel Lawrence, in a sermon preach'd at his meeting-house in Namptwich, Octob. 16th, 1691, whereby he would shew, that the infants of professing Christians ought to be baptized : with a seasonable word to my brethren of the baptized church / presented by the most unworthiest of her servants, S.A.	Acton, Samuel, d. 1740?; Lawrence, Samuel.	1692 (1692)	Wing A452aA; ESTC R203313	36,660	49

Evidence against you which speaks in the Nineteenth Article as follows The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful Men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same which strongly bespeaks the Church of Christ to be exclusive of Infants Further your grant that Children before Baptism belong to the Kingdom of Heaven doth call into question that part of the Church Catechism which teacheth her Catticuminies to say That in their Baptism they were made Members of Christ Children of God and Inheritors or Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven and if they are Members of the Church as you confess they belong to the Kingdom of Heaven is not your own practice as forreign when as in your baptizing any do tell the People that thereby that Child becomes a Member of the Church of God a goodly favour you do 'em indeed by Baptism you make them what it seems they were before and no more by your own Grant Again That your Conclusion is not true that saith Because little Children are of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore they are of the Church and ought to be admitted by Baptism is further evident in that there are many that shall be saved as have not the least shew of Right to a Place in and to the Priviledges of the Church of Christ of which Infants are some who have not fin'd actually against the Law of Nature and the rest are those Heathens who do live and walk up to that Light and Law of Nature which God hath placed in them who are not blest with the Gospel Light nor any Divine Revelation over and above the Light of Natural Conscience and surely some such there may be of whom the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 who do by Nature the things contain'd in the Law and with reference to such in all probability Christ spake saying Many shall come from the East and from the West meaning the most remote parts of the Earth and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out Matth. 8.11 12. If it be granted that there may be any such it 's evident the Kingdom of Heaven will be a Receptacle for them but who in the least can imagine that they have any right to Gospel Priviledges so that your Conclusion must needs fall A right to Heaven from this Text is granted them but it yields them not the least Evidence of a Right to a Church Relation and Priviledge So that I conceive all your pains in pleading from this Text vain and in all that you have said to be but like one that beateth the Air. A gallant Vapour brandishing a Sword that hath no Enemy to strike at 1 Cor. 9.26 You say the same Objections lye against their being saved as against their being baptized if they cannot actually believe Mark 16.16 Answer That Faith in Jesus Christ is made the Condition on which all Men must be saved to whom the Gospel either was is or ever shall be preached is certain yet as the Gospel never was appointed to be preached to Infants as such neither is it by you nor any Man in this day so it is not required any where of them to believe in order to their bring saved If it be who required it and where And since their natural Capacities is such as renders the work of Believing impossible to them without a Miracle whose Faith shall save them their immediate Parents nay rather the Faith of our remote Father to wit Adam as his Unbelief at first destroyed them so in likelyhood his Faith should interess them in the Grace of Eternal Life but we say the Faith of neither for the Faith and Righteousness of all believing Parents in the World considered in one will not be of Merit sufficient to save one Victim Ezek. 14.14 No this Benefit flows purely from the Fountain of all Grace and is conveyed to them by another Stream to wit God's free and full imputing the Righteousness of Christ the second Adam by whose Righteousness Life and Meritorious Death they are inverted with a Justification unto Life Eternal Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all Men unto Justification of Life Were it so that the Faith of Parents did intitle their Children to Salvation how unworthily would it reflect upon our Lord Jesus as if he could not save Innocent Babes without their Parents believing and strongly conclude God to be more prone to Severity then Mercy in saving a very few i. e. the Children of believing Parents and Eternally damns all the rest from their Mothers Womb for what they could not help viz. a remote Fathers sinning and an immediate Fathers not believing but how contrary is this to that God whose Mercies are over all his Works Psalm 145.8 9. So that it 's evident the Salvation of dying Infants is sure though they believe not in the sence of that Text Mark 16.16 or with that Faith which alone qualifies a Person for Baptism So I come to your Fifth ARGUMENT The Children of Believers are said to be holy this is plainly set down in the Text which cannot be meant are Legitimate not Bastards for that could not be accounted if both the Parents had been Unbelievers neither was that the Question which the Apostle here handles Neither can it be understood absolutely of real holiness for then Parents could convey Grace to their Children and a gracious Man could not have graceless Children but it must be meant of foederal Holiness as they who were born of the Jews were Jews not common and unclean as Heathen but accounted as in the Church and within the Covenant so that you that are born of Christians are to be accounted Christians therefore have a right to the Priviledges of Christians 2. Scripture doth explain and confirm this Acts 10.15 28. and Rom. 11.16 if the Root be holy so are the Branches And it 's very observable that of the little that 's spoke of the case of Children in the New Testament all is for it and not one word against it Fifth ANSWER That the Children of Believers are holy we believe and that their Holiness is founded upon a better Basis than the Faith of their immediate Parents and also that it is different from that of their Parents and such a Holiness as is so far from inrighting them to Baptism as that till they come to sin it doth much rather exempt them For if Baptism be a Sign that signifies to all that submit to it the Remission of Sins as Scripture sufficiently shews Acts 2.38 and Mark 1.4 c. then I pray of what use can Baptism be to those who are under no actual Commission of Sin and as such

enough is granted and that you need not make them worse believing you will never be able to prove the difference so great between the Issue of Jews and Gentiles that had an equal advantage of being born of Parents that were lawfully married what degree of Sanctity descended upon the Jews in lawful Marriage more then upon the Off-spring of the Gentiles under the same Circumstance I know not and yet I believe Israel was a People blest with an Eminent Holiness above the Gentile Nations in common But then that peculiar Holiness streamed to them from another Fountain than meerly being born of the Jews in holy Matrimony to wit the Grace and Love of God in that he was pleased to choose them before any other Nation to make them his People and accordingly blest them with holy Laws and Ordinances as Psalm 147.19 20. That every one born of Jewish Parents was a Jew is not doubted but that the Jews were Church Members by their Birth is not so easie for if they were Church Members so soon as born they had a right I conceive to the Priviledges thereof But with respect to the Passover we are expresly told that no uncircumcised Person shall eat thereof Exod. 12.48 And that such as are born to you English men are English men and so accounted though born in France Spain or Ireland where such born of English Parents even disdain to be accounted but English but that such as are born of Christians are Christians is a Paradox and absurd with a witness considering that no less then a believing the Doctrine and an imitation of the Life and Manners of Christ can truly denominate a Man to be a Christian At this rate a Man that is an Idolater begets an Idolater and an Hypocrite begets an Hypocrite Strange Divinity And as to the Text you cite Rom. 11.16 it favours not your Conclusion at all for if by First-fruits and Root you will understand those holy Persons Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet its evident the whole Lump and Branches were not so by their manifest rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ for amongst whom did he meet with more notorious Enemies then amongst the Jews Did their tempting belying betraying accusing condemning and executing the Lord of Life bespeak them to be a holy Lump which in your sence they must be as they proceeded from a holy Root to wit Abraham notwithstanding the many Insolencies and Indignities wherewith they treated the Lord Jesus How directly opposite is this to what Christ saith of the Jews the natural Seed of Abraham who notwithstanding that tells them That they were of their Father the Devil John 8.44 But by that Scripture we may understand that as God did look favourably on Abraham the Root of that People so also he doth favour the Branches of that whole Nation that sprang from him and therefore as some of the Jews had received Christ and were thereby interested in the Divine Favour so the words rightly understood are an Incouragement to the Unbelieving Jews that stand of to come into Christ assuring them thereupon that he would not reject them but take them into his Favour as Branches that proceeded from so holy a Root they also contain an Argument to take off the Gentiles that were come in from judging and censuring the Jews upon their Rejection and being Cast off for though God in Justice hath cut off the obdurate Jew and graciously taken in the Gentiles through believing yet from that favour he anciently bore towards that People he will not have the Gentiles to despise them who is ready to receive them into favour as Branches springing from so holy a Root if they continued not in Infidelity which is evident in this and the following Verses so that all the Scripture speaks of Infants right to Baptism whether more or less or nothing at all it 's evident you have said nothing to purpose from it I pass to your Sixth ARGUMENT What hinders but that the Children of professing Believers may be baptized Nothing on God's part who hath declared himself ready to receive them and take them into Covenant together with their Parents and said That of such is the Kingdom of Heaven nothing in the Sacrament they may have all that is essential unto Baptism given unto them as well as to Adult grown Persons nothing on the Ministers part but they may baptize Infants as well as grown Persons and nothing on the Childrens part as hath been shewn they are capable of it and have a right unto it as they were capable of Circumcision and had a right to it Sixth ANSWER As to the first of what is contain'd in this Argument of their being taken into Covenant and belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven is sufficiently spoke to already in my Answers to your Second and Fourth Arguments A word or two to the Querest demanding what hinders Methinks this Question is so fully resolved by the Holy Ghost in that Eighth of the Acts verses 36 37. that no thinking Man could without blushing have so interrogated However if you are willing to know I will tell you and amongst many things there is one that may warrantably hinder and that is a total want of Command from God for your Authority could you once preface your practice with a Thus saith the Lord every Mouth would be stopped but till then we humbly desire who hath required this at your hands it may be worthy your search for sure that which God never had a will to require he will never have a heart to accept if things but half done in pursuance to his Command be a rejecting his Authority as in the Case of Saul how much more a doing things in his Name to which he never directed If the Lord delights not in the Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices he once required comparatively to an obeying his Voice how much less will he delight in Works of Supererogation in things done over and above in what he hath commanded See 1 Sam. 15.22 23. But if you assign the Commission of Christ for your warrant is it not plain from thence that you have broke his Law and changed his Ordinances and that at best you do but one thing for another which is not one jot the better for this cause the Earth is defiled and the Land mourneth for truly may the Lord say as Isaiah 24 5. They have transgressed my Laws and changed my Ordinances Sir That an express Command is necessary for the warranting your practice is no more then what you have acknowledged viz. That it is the Command of God only that can constitute an Ordinance of God which you affirm your sprinkling of Infants to be therefore assign your Command as you would the Lord should not say of you as of others in another Case They have done that which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart Jer. 7.31 Neither will you ever be able to quit your selves from the Guilt of Will-worship which we justly

A Modest Reply Humbly Offer'd As an Answer to and Confutation of Seven ARGUMENTS Collected and Deliver'd by Mr. Samuel Lawrence in a SERMON preach'd at his Meeting-House in Namptwich Octob. 16th 1691 whereby he would shew That the Infants of Professing Christians ought to be Baptized WITH AN APPENDIX OF Seven ARGUMENTS SHEWING That Infants ought not to be Baptized WITH A SEASONABLE WORD to my Brethren of the Baptized Church presented by the most Unworthiest of her Servants S. A. Coloss 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men after the rudi●ents of the world and not after Christ. Jude 3. Contend earnestly for the faith on●● delivered ●o the saints LONDON Printed for the Author and a●● 〈…〉 ●ld by Tho. Pebian at the Bible in Gheapside near Bread-street-e●● ●692 Mr SAMVEL LAWRENCE SIR IF I am more bold then welcome in the Liberty I take in directing these Lines to you I am sorry but must be content and with Patience am resolv'd to bear the weight of your Censure which I can more easily do then think that such a Man as you should with such Fondness upon no better Grounds and in so unusual a Heat express yourself so Unsuccessfully as neither to Convince your Adversaries nor Please your Friends But knowing with many others that this comes not with a Surprize upon you long since acquainting you with what is now brought to light shall not stand to make any Apology nor for the Author who never intended the Project of this Undertaking till now being inform'd of his Death whose Pains I had desir'd but by the Disposing-Hand of Providence in vain and therefore have now adventur'd myself believing thro' the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which is most seen in the Weakness of his Creatures that necessary Supplies would be given to ingage in a Cause that so nearly concerns his Honour and Interest in the World Had it not been undue Reflections from the Pulpit invading the Right of my LORD and impairing as much as in you lay the Credit of his Holy Ordinance together with the Manners of some of your Friends who being present when you preach'd that Sermon from the 1 Cor. 7.14 and as Vessels fill'd with Wind that must either vent or flie not contented within their own Confines but trespassing upon their Neighbours Borders to proclaim their own Folly I had almost said together with yours boldly affirming That you had assign'd Scripture enough for Infant-Baptism these Lines had never taken Wing But the very act of Providence which brought your Sermon-Notes and Bible to my hand was such as gives ground to conclude that it was the Divine Pleasure the Structure you had built upon so sandy a Bottom should at once be cast into the Sea of Confusion And to be silent seeing his Right is under so manifest an Invasion must bespeak us to be the most base of Vassals for who is it that is bought with Monies of another from amongst the Gally-Slaves to injoy Freedom but will ever account himself oblig'd to maintain his Redeemer's Honour against all that shall offer to detract from or lay a Blot upon it How much less then shall the Redeemed of the Lord be still who are under a greater Obligation by how much more great the Redemption-Price is that was given So that how ever Unfit in myself yet from the Bond I am under and the Nature of the present Exigence am forced with Cresus his dumb Son to speak Yet from that Respect I have always born to you and still do I could sincerely wish you were not the Man I have to do with but since it is so I have acted with as much Candour as becomes me the Nature of the Cause considered having not rak'd in the Ashes of your Reflections but wish they may lie and die as they shall for me unless new ones give life to the old but hoping better things and that you will not think the worse of your own because it brings Interest along with it wishing you seriously to consider those Words of our Lord Mat. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these commandments and shall teach men so shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven And together with Mat. 15.8 9. In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men So in love I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace which is sufficient to instruct you in all things necessary to Salvation thro' Christ for whom I am all Mens more especially yours S. A. TO THE READER Friends and Brethren more particularly you who were present at the SERMON preach'd from 1 Cor. 7.14 by Mr. Lawrence at his Meeting-House in Namptwich Octob. 18. 1691 for whose sakes next to the Glory of GOD and our LORD JESUS CHRIST I have wrote these Lines as an Answer to his Seven Arguments whereby he would prove That the Infants of Professing Christians ought to be Baptized BRETHREN I Have reason to believe that you are in good earnest for Salvation and to secure your precious and immortal Souls from Loss and Ruine knowing that they once lost shall be no more capable of Repair Matth. 16.26 and that it s not the whole World though it could be given by one damned Soul to procure a Change of State Wherefore as a learned Man saith As the Worth and Loss of Heaven can neither be imagin'd or valued so the dreadful and perpetual Pains of Hell can neither be measur'd nor declar'd To obtain the one and escape the other sure then should be the principal Design and Business of every one of us in this Life The thing is possible and true Happiness next to GOD's Pardoning Grace in CHRIST JESVS consists in our Knowledge and Practice not that Knowledge will profit other ways then as it is accompanied with Practice Therefore says CHRIST If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them Joh. 13.17 Neither will Practice avail but as it is Conformity to that perfect Law and Rule which He hath given us by which whosoever orders his Conversation aright shall see the Salvation of GOD Psal 50.23 So useful is Holy Scripture which GOD hath given us as his Standard to measure all things that relate either to Matters of Judgment or Practice by that without them we are wholly in the Dark as to the Nature of all Positive and Instituted Worship as Solomon would have been when he was to build the LORD a House had he not received a Pattern for his Direction in doing all things that appertained thereto Now as all things was to be done according to the Pattern given of old in the House of GOD so nothing ought to be done now in the House or Worship of GOD but what he hath assigned by Pattern and Direction in his Word Wherefore saith he To the law and to the testimonies if they speak not according to this word it is

needs no sign of Remission of them But if with Austin you say they have Original Sin that must be washt away by Baptism why then their Holiness before Baptism is nothing but Uncleanness agreeable with some of your own Coments upon Psalm 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me So that it 's plain they have no Holiness to inright them to Baptism but rather need Baptism to make them holy Further Consider how manifest a Contradiction the Patrons and Defendors of Pedo-baptism meet with from each other not knowing where to find a stay for it's Support How doth Austin thwart you you say they that are born of Christians are to be accounted Christians that is they are Christians or ought not to be so accompted And he tells us as my Author quotes him in his Book De Verb. Apost c. 24. the Question being Whether the Infants of baptized Christians were holy he saith Not because as the Circumcised begot only the Uncircumcised so neither did the baptized beget baptized or holy ones the terms are equivolent the Reason he gives None is new born before he is born And further proves it by these two Illustrations 1. That the purest Wheat that is most purged from Chaff or Husk yet being sown brings forth Grain that has Chaff and Husk 2. That the best Grapes that are sown brings forth wild Grapes And there is reason to believe that most of the Fathers in this particular was of Austin's mind as might be gathered from the consent of whole Councels take one for all that is the Affrican Councel where Austin was both Present and President they thus Decree All that affirm young Children receive Eternal Life albeit they be not renewed by Baptism they are accursed c. And notwithstanding the shew of kindness you extend to Infants in your Coment upon the Text I am perswaded you are also of Austin's mind for if I mistake not in your second Argument you talk as if they must be washed by Baptism but I tro for what if they be not unclean but holy Further Every Holiness gives not a right to Baptism You confess the Holiness in the Text is not a Moral or Real Holiness which only opposes Sin Pollution and Uncleanness of Heart and Life so Holiness is proper only to the Adult The Vessels of the Sanctuary are as expresly said to be holy as the Children in the Text see 1 Chron. 22.19 and Ezra 8.28 then see how unsound you argue saying The Children of Believers are holy Ergo They ought to be baptized The Cups and Vessels of the Sanctuary are holy therefore they ought to be baptized Now to every considerate Man is not the one Conclusion as truly deducible from the quality as the other Who but Men willing to be deceived will conclude any more for the one then for the other Austin telling you whatsoever this Holiness is 1 Cor. 7.14 it is not of power to make Christians or remit Sins But you proceed and say It is not Legitimate Holiness neither is that the Question that the Apostle here handles Answer Surely Sir you shoot at Rovers and in this have spoken foolishly with your Tongue Is not Marriage and Matters relating thereto the Subject of this whole Chapter and does the scope and design of it bespeak the Apostle labouring the removal of some Doubts and Difficulties that many were under at Corinth that were turned from Idols to God though but young and weak in the Faith therefore they write to the Apostle for satisfaction in Matters and Things they were doubtful of And what more plain from the manner of the Apostle's addressing himself to them in the first Verse Now concerning the things whereof ye write c. One amongst others of these things we may rationally conclude was Whether a Husband or a Wife closing with Christ by Faith and leaving their Yoke-fellow in Unbelief and Idolatry might lawfully cleave to them and cohabit with them as their true and lawful Yoke-fellows and as before they did being both in Unbelief or whether they must not rather leave or disown them as to that Relation because of the spiritual difference that is now betwixt them Now whether this Doubt amongst them at Corinth might arise upon their accidental hearing of what God made the Duty of Israel in the Reformation in Ezra's and Nehemiah's times that they should put away their idolatrous Wives as Ezra 10.3 I leave And to the matter proposed by the Corinths the Apostle advises That the Believer by no means shall depart if in case the Unbelieving Party still please to abide and cohabit with them as vers 10 11 12 13. And further to resolve them in this matter he renders them a twofold Reason in the fourteenth Verse 1. The unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the believing Wife and the Vnbelieving Wife is sanctified by the believing Husband Which is as if he had said You are as truly Man and Wife in God's account now as you were before your Marriage as honourable your Bed as undefiled your living and lying together as unblameable in the sight of God as ever the Husband and Wife as truly sanctified a Companion for each other notwithstanding the difference between them in Matters of Religion which the Annotator on this Text in the Second Volume of Mr. Pool's Work saith The Believer without Offence to the Law of God may continue in a married state with such a Yoke-fellow notwithstanding their disposition in Matters of Faith And Erasmus with others tell us expresly That Children are legitimately holy agreeable with that in Malachy 2.15 where the Lord himself calls the Children born in lawful Marriage a godly Seed Therefore as a 2. Reason the Apostle removes the Absurdity that the scrupulous Converts at Corinth feared saying Else were your Children unclean but now are they holy i. e. Were it so as you fear that desparity in Matters of Religion dissolved the Marriage Bond why then your Issue would be born in Uncleanness and bear the Blot of Bastardy upon them But to remove this Scruple and satisfie that there abode is as warrantable as ever saith elsewhere Your Children were unclean but now are they holy Now as the Husband and Wife are sanctified to each other abiding in that honourable or holy state of Matrimony the Children born unto them are holy which needs no longer to be feared by you as Holiness and Sanctification opposeth the Uncleanness of Fornication 1 Thess 4.3 5. Now I pray Sir if this be not the Question that the Apostle here handles will you shew us what it is or cease to darken Counsel by words without knowledge You proceed and must needs have this to be Foederal Holiness explaining it thus As they that were born of the Jews were Jews not common and unclean as Heathen but accounted as in the Church so that you that are born of Christians are to be accounted Christians Answer The Heathen were bad