MANS INBRED MALADY OR The Doctrine of Original Sin maintained As also the necessity of Infants Baptism By GEORGE BURCHES B. D. late Rector of Wood-Church in Cheshire Eph. 4.14 Henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lie in wait to deceive Arausian Concil 2. c. 2. Si quis soli Adae praevaricationem suam non ejus propagini asserit nocuisse c. anathema London Printed by W. Wilson and are to be sold by Thomas Johnson at the Golden Key in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1655. TO HIS HIGHNES OLIVER Lord Protector of England Scotland and Ireland G. B. wisheth Eternall Honor and Happinesse MY LORD IT is observable in the Catalogue of antient worthies that such were accounted most eminent that arriving at the highest pitch of Honor did prove most humble Hence that famous Emperor Theodosius esteemed it a greater Honor to be called membrum Ecclesiae then to bee stiled Caput Imperij The servant of the Church then the Soveraign of an Empire Humility is that Grace that Eternizes the fame of all Gods worthies Hence Joshuah David and others are renowned for ever as most Eminent in fighting the Battels of the Great God whose undertakings were Crown'd with the greatest successe for the advancement of the Cause of God With no lesse Honor and successe hath it pleased the Almighty to own your Highnesses proceedings by many signall deliverances in Crowning your Highnesse endeavours with so many renowned Victories Upon whose Gracious temper I have presumed to present my weak endeavours which containes that subject which King David himselfe thought necessary to be searcht into And being the practise of so Holy a man as David I hope may prove acceptable to your Highnesse into whose Clemencie and goodnesse I cast my selfe and all at your mercifull Interpretation which if I were not in some measure assured of the place where these labours had their Birth should have been the place of their Buriall neither should they have gone any further then those walls wherein they were Enclosed and so have breathed forth their last where they had their first Being Presuming therefore on your Highnesse who is not onely the Patron but Protector of the Truth I shelter my poor labours under the wings of your Protection desiring a favourable construction and rest The least and unworthiest of yours and the Churches servants G. BURCHES To the Reader IT is not the thirst of Vain glory that makes me run the hazzard of the worlds censure neither am I fearfull of those venemous reproaches which either malice or ignorance can lay unto my charge in expressing my labours to the publick view Quiquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis I very well know Sermons and Trastates have their Dooms partly according to the capacities partly according to the affections of the Readers and Hearers Hence though some applauded Christ and said he was a good man others derided him and said he deceived the people It s no strange thing in this latter Age of the world to hear and see the most bitter invectives of malicious tongues spit out to blemish the most innocent persons Ne cibus ipse juvat morsu fundatus aceti Mar. Epigr. The breath of Hatred turne the most wholesome food into poyson and where the Bees the Saints of God gather Honey the most hurtfull creatures malicious persons conveigh all into poyson and become banefull too These like Lamia that Witch in the Fable whom Plutarch mentions put on their eyes when they go abroad are Eagle-sighted in condemning their brethren but lay them aside when they come home Sentiant dicant quid velint dum mea me conscientia non accusat coram Deo Aug. blind in perceiving their own faults For my own part I passe not the Worlds censure so long as I keep the peace of a good Conscience neither will I censure any that unjustly lies at my repuâ—e but rather will endeavour to requite their malice with forgivenesse who one day may be made sensible of their own folly And therefore all that I wâ—ll say unto the Reader shall be this If thou provest judicious and learned I respect and love thee If Criticall and but simple I slight thee If malicious and hateful I pitty thee If pious and charitable I prize and honor thee If Factious and Heretical I have here prescribed a remedie to cure the Crotchets and whimsies of thy brain and so farewell Errata PAge 11. l. 19. r. excellent p. 22. l. 14. dele a. p. 25. l. 7. r. any one man p. 30. l. 10. r. whole race p. 37 l. 23. r. that Adam p. 56. l. 4. r. that is and dele p. 76. l. 3. r. given p. 85. l. 7. r. their for the. p. 81. l. 20. for and r. which p. 82. l. 8. r. omit p. 98. l. 14. r. Be not like hills the higher the barrenner but like unto Diamonds the bigger the better The Doctrine of Originall sinne maintained Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me THis Psalm conteines a relation of the Royall Prophets recovery out of those foul and damnable sinns of Murther and Adultery And it is an exact description of Mans misery and Gods mercy shewing that as the one abounds the other superabounds both exemplified in and upon the person of David evidently manifesting and declaring that as sin had abounded by him so the Grace of God unto him and the power of Grace within him had abounded much more And it may be divided into six parts and reduced into six principall heads which may be called the degrees of true Conversion and Regeneration 1. The first means of Conversion is the Grace of God reproving the sinner for his iniquity and recalling him to repentance by the Ministry of the Prophets the Preachers of his word contained in the Title of the Psalm To him that excelleth 2. The power of Faith signified by the Prophets submission thereunto in the first and second verses Have mercy upon my O Lord and teaching us that when we are reproved and convicted of sin by the preaching of the Law not to wax furious and discontent through impatience or despair but in meeknesse and humility to seeke unto the Phycsiian and humbly to present our selves at the feet of Gods mercy 3. The Prophets ingenuous acknowledgement of the heinousnesse and hatefulnesse of his sin ver 3 4. For I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me 4. Contrition which is a curious search and enquiry that he made into the ground and nature of his sin ver 5. 5. Hence the Prophet proceeds to the procuring of the remedy or the Application of the medicine which is the blood of Christ ver 7. Purge me with Hysop and I shall be cleansed c. 6. The perfection of Regeneration which by some is called
the irregularitie and disorder of the desire and act is sin either we eat too much or are not contented with that which will suffice nature or desire that which is unwholsome or loath that which would best nourish us or in some measure and degree or other of gluttony the law that is those rules and limitations which God had prescribed in nature unto that facultie is transgressed So thirst becomes drunkennesse and that same cupiditas venerea is changed into lust and so by excesse is made sloth and so of the rest Secondly consider the faculties called Irascibiles and there we see that joy by excesse is turned into voluptuousnesse and sorrow into anxiety that fear becomes horror and anger is turned into fury â—nd hatred into malice 3. Proceed we unto the reasonable faculties and see how hope exceeds by presumption how mercy becomes foolish pitty how zeal runs into superstition and knowledge into heresie and so of all the faculties of man Neither do these only transgresse the law of God by exceeding their limits and prescriptions but also being defective in the measure and intention thereof so fear offends by security and anger by stupidity so hope oftentimes becomes despair and mercy is turned into crueltie so the defect of zeal is dulnesse of spirit and the defect of knowledge is ignorance so of all the rest which I may not now enumerate their inordinate motion is the transgression of the law either on the right hand or on the left either in excesse or defect of their functions and operations so vertue consists in medio as it is in the mean between them of the moderation of these excesses and the supplies of these desires are called vertues or graces by their several effidients vertues by moralists in so much as by education and by the light and strength of nature they are in some measure corrected and graces by Divines because by the power of Gods gratious spirit they are reformed So that to draw all into a sum we may reduce Original sin unto these three hâ—â—d 1. Reatus inobedient to guiltinesse of disobedience against Gods law 2. Defectus boni a defect or wâ—nâ— of all goodnesse in our selves 3. Proclivitas ad malum an inclination unto wickednesse in all things we go about to do The first in respect of the time past the second or the time present and the third of the time to come The one by imputation the other by inhaesion the last by inclination Being in the first place made guilty of sin by the just imputation of the willfull disobedience of our first Parents because we were then in their loins as parts of them that now descend from them and sprung out of them 2 Being thereby made deficient and deprived of all righteousnesse which God had created in us and that happinesse that was intended for us Lastly being then wickedly disposed there being in every part of us as well inferior of the body as superior of the soul a disposition or propensity an inclination or proclivity to erre from the rules of Gods Law wherby we our selves every one of us shall effect or bring to perfection our own finall overthrow or destruction unlesse by the mercy of God it be prevented This is the Catastrophe this is the universall Corruption and subversion of man being every way sinfull both in Semine in Embrione and in Homine Sinfull in his Conception and shaping sinfull in his growth and encreasing and also sinfull in his strength and perfection of being and that not in any mean or remisse degree but in every one of these sin being out of measure sinfull All this and much more then this was the sorrowfull and penitent soul of the Prophet strongly possest and afflicted with all in his deep meditation of sin in this place Where he saith I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me And thus having briefly run over the matter and unfolded the scope and sense of the Text as well as my understanding would serve and therein propounded onely matter of Instruction for the information of our understanding teaching us what we are to know It remains in the next place that we collect out of the precedent discourse such morall documents for the reformation of our lives as may direct us what we are to do Out of which though I may observe many yet I will pitch my thoughts onely upon those two 1. That the dearest Saints so well as the greatest sinners are in their Infancy Originally sinfull 2. That the sin which we are from our very infancy stained withall is conveyed by our Parents unto us Concerning the first Truth you have it here confirmed by the confession of one that is recorded to be a man after Gods own heart and thereby reputed to be a most dear Saint yet for all that pleads not immunity from sin in his very infancie but saith that he was shapen in iniquity and in sin did his mother conceive him Of the same mind with David the Father was Solomon the Son Prov. 22.15 where he laies it down as an undeniable Axiome That foolishnesse is bound up in the heart of a child By which phrase is meant nothing but wickednesse and finn which is on a child as a fardle or pack on a horse back which he can never of himself shake off And this is the ground why the Lord himself speaketh of the whole Nation of the Jewes which were then the onely Church hee had in the world Esay 48.8 Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb Though they were a people in Covenant with God yet in their infancy in the womb a transgressor yea out of the womb so visibly before Circumcision transgressors also According to that of Saint Paul Eph. 2.3 We are all by nature the children of wrath as wel as others Though the chosen of God yet herein can plead no more priviledge from the exemption of this inbred pollution then Judas himself could whom our Saviour calls no lesse then a Devill Ioh. 8.44 Have not I chosen twelve and one of them is a Devill Hence is that of Aug. damnati antequam nati And therefore by some Originall sin is concluded to be not onely a privation but a corrupt habit like unto a disease which beside the privation of health hath humores malé dispositos the humors ill disposed whence it cometh to passe that the imagination of mans heart as the Lord speaks Gen. 8.21 vs evill from his very youth there is a nature prone There is in him a naturall pronesse and disposition to every thing that is evill as there is in the youngest whelp of a Lion or Bear or a Woolfe to cruelty or in the very egge of a Cockatrice before it be hatched which is the comparison which the Holy Ghost useth Esay 59.5 whereupon saies Aug. Concupiscentia lex peccati cum parvulis nascitur Concupiscence which is the Law of sinne is even born with Children And
Saint Paul saies as much Rom. 7.18 I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing And 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our suffiencie is of God The reasons of which Doctrine are these R. 1. Because of that guilt which Infants stand in Adam In whom saith the Apostle Rom. 5.12 for so is that place rendred all have sinned For Adam was not then as one particular person but as the Common stock and root of all mankind Whereupon by this sin all his posterity which had been in sin as in the root becomes equally sinfull Hence is that of our Saviour Mat. 7.18 A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good â—ruit And he gives the reason Ioh. 3.6 Because that which is born of the flesh is flesh that is of the corrupt Parents is sinfull which is Jobs meaning where he saith no man can beget a child that is clean from sin himself being unclean This treason committed by Adam runs through the whole blood this leaven infecteth the whole lump this poison is diffused into all mankind And since it comes to passe that man is disabled from acting that which is good For wee know that water can rise no higher then the Fountain is Nature will give it leave to go no higher the fire giveth heat onely within a certain compasse and distance and no farther Nothing can work beyond the sphere of its own reach and activity So it is impossible to corrupt nature to elevate it self to supernaturall grace or to do any action preparing bending or inclining the will to it For as water being cold by nature cannot be made hot until an higher principle be first insused into it no more can mere nature do any thing tending to saving grace untill it be raised up by an higher influence For the guilt of Adams offence lies heavie upon all his posterity so that there being not left strength in them as of themselves to remove it it disables them from either thinking or acting any thing that is good and though they may be Saints yet in their Infancy are not freed from sin and therefore the state of infancy it selfe hath been severely punished as appears 1 Sam. 15.3 God commanded Saul to slay the very Infants and Sucklings of the Amalekites and forbad to spare or shew pitty unto any of them And Psalms 137.9 the Lord pronounceth him happy that shall take the little ones of the Babylonians and dash out their brains against the stones And Gen. 19.25 we shall find that in the destruction of Sodom none of the inhabitants were spared no not the Infants and sucklings but God rained down fire and brimstone upon them The like you shal find Numb 16 27. where from the Tabernacle it is said that Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the doore of their Tents and their wives and their sons and their little children all which were swallowed up by the earth ver 32. as Moses said and so went down quick into the pit Now there can be no punishment inflicted but where sin is presupposed neither can there be any sin in Infants thought on but what is originally in their natures and therefore to cleer the justice of God in punishing the Doctrine of the Text is evident that being originally sinful they suffer most justly by the hand of God Obj. But these be most lewd men and God forbid but that there should be a difference betwixt them and the godly Ans The Infant of the best Christian is by nature no better then the infant of a Sodomite as appears Ephes 2.3 and the sin those Infants was guilty of was the cause why God did thus deal with them for Rom. 5.12 God is no respecter of persons and therefore hates sin as well in them as in us for hath not the infants of Gods own people been born fools natural or deaf or blind as we may see John 9.1 hath not many of them been smitten with many and grievous and strange diseases as Davids child was 2 Sam. 12.15 And what is this but a witnessing of Gods wrath against them as well as others for how can a most pure God love any thing that is polluted This is contrary to his nature whose pure eyes cannot behold iniquity and therefore it is as easie for light and darknesse to agree together as the most pure Creator and impure creature to love each other This I speak not to abridge Gods mercy how in his favour he may look upon Infants in his Son but how God in himselfe may behold them in their original sin being children of wrath and so may become the fit objects of his wrath to be severely punished with their Parents 2ly Because of that filth which is conveyed from their Parents unto them And therefore by Isa 48.8 are said to be transgressors from the womb whose hearts are evil from their very youth Gen. 8.11 Hence is that of Ambrose who is just in the sight of God whereas an Infant of a day old cannot be clear from sin every thing that is born carrieth with it the nature of that which bare it as touching the substance and accidents proper to that speciall kind But we are all born of corrupt and guilty parents hence by nature in our birth we draw their guilt and corruption and by this means we have the spawn and seed of all sin within us so that every imagination becomes evil only evil and continually evil Gen. 6.6 as God himselfe sets us out in our natural condition Ob. The 1 Cor. 7.14 the children of the faithful are said to be holy therefore without Original sin and pollution Ans They have not this Holiness from carnal propagation for it is said Rom. 9.11.13 when they had neither done good nor evil I have loved Jacob and hated Esau But they are said to be holy in respect of the external fellowship of the Church that is to say they are to be accounted members of that body the Church whereof Christ is the head and so also for the chosen and sanctified of God which place doth not any way infringe or prejudice this truth for the natures of the best mens children are sinful though their persons in respect of the external fellowship of the Church be reputed holy therefore Parents by nature derive not unto their posteritie righteousness which is freely imputed but unrighteousnesse and damnation unto which themselves by nature are subject and the reason is this because their posteritie are not born of them according to grace but according to nature neither is grace and justification tyed to carnal propagation but to the most free election of God so that though Infants be by the Apostle said to be holy yet it is not to be understood in respect of their natures for that appears to be sinful and filthy but in regard of that stipulation and covenant which is made between God and the faithful
and therefore concludes nothing against this truth but that the Infants of the dearest Saints are originally sinful R. 3. Because Children are deprived of those supernaturall gifts and endowments which otherwise they should thorough Adam have possest if hee had stood firm to his God It 's true at the first when man was created it was no small part of his happinesse in that primary condition to be ignorant of sin though a Quidditative knowledge perchance of the nature of sin he had by reason of the Law writ in his heart yet a practicall experimentall knowledge he had not he could not have the mishapen brat of sin being then unbegot it was a meer Chimaera an imaginarie Monster having no Existence but in Satans braine the shop and forge of Hell But alas this happinesse being but a dream of happinesse of small continuance through mens ambition he is forthwith stript of it and so becomes not onely a spectacle of misery himself but makes his whole posterity miserable also So that what he acted we in him became equally guilty and liable to the same wrath For so saies the Apostle Rom. 5.12.14 In him we are have sinned that is in Adam and are by nature the children of wrath wofull spectacles of wrath stript of al those excellencies and gifts which in him wee might have enjoyed had he proved obedient to the command of his God But being a wretched progenitor begets a miserable progenie whose blood is so stained with his treason as that they have forfeited all supernaturall gifts and endowments through him and though by the grace of Christ restauration in some measure may he made to the Saints yet are their Infants not freed from this inbred maladie but are by nature originally sinfull Obj. Ezek 18 20. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father Ergo Injustice that Adams posterity should suffer for Adams sin Answ It 's true if he falls not into the same and approves it not but disliketh and avoideth it But we justly bear the iniquity of Adam for these reasons 1. Because the fault is so Adams that it also becomes ours For the Apostle witnesseth We all sinned in him and so his sin becomes ours Secondly because Adams wholâ— nature was guilty and we being as part proceeding out of his substance and masse we cannot but be guilty also our selves Thirdly Because Adam received the gifts of God to be imparted unto us on that condition if himself did retain them or lose them unto us if himself lost them whereas then Adam lost them he lost them not onely in himself but in all his posterity also So that hence it came to passe that all those supernaturall gifts and endowments which he had we are deprived of by reason of his falling from God R. 4. Because Originall sin is peccatum hominis a sin of the whole man whereupon this infection is conveyed by conjunction of both they jointly making one man enter into one condition and so are partakers of each others woe or welfare For though the soul comes immediately from God and so is a pure substance and the body cannot be sinfull without the soul being a dead masse yet as peccatum hominis the sin of the whole mans infection is conveyed by conjunction of both Neither doth this infringe the Iustice of God whatsoever some may say to the contrary to thrust a poor soul into an unclean body For the soul and body are not of God respected as single substances but as they are joyned together to make one man and therefore there is but one Constitution of both The soul in respect of Gods creation is a pure Creature yet it continueth not in that estate one moment for it is created in the midst of the body in an unclean and polluted place and forthwith being coupled to the body begineth to be unclean As a clear water cast into a muddy place becomes suddenly foul So doth the soul when united to the body becomes suddenly sinfull Or as sweet Oyle powred into a fustie vessell loseth its purenesse So the soul infused into the body becometh impure and sinfull The pure soul is infected with the contagion of impure seed as a fair flower is sullied with unclean hands Hence Originall sin is said to be ex carne Causaliter yet is in the soul subjective formaliter And so becoming peccatum hominis the sin of the whole man The Infants of the best become Originally sinfull Use 1. Seeing Infants are originally sinful this may serve in the first place to confute that opinion of the Pelagians who deny that sin cometh by nature but is learned only by example or imitation which if this could be I would gladly know by what example did Cain learn to play the hypocrite or murther his brother who was his president to imitate I read not at that time of any vile wretch besâ—â—es himselfe in the whole world that was guilty of such horrid crimes surely then it must be somewhat within him that must move him to sin so greatly againg the God of heaven and earth which can be nothing but that seminale principium that inbred in lady that David here confesses he was conceived and born in this every man that knows himself knows to be true I appeal to the conscience especially of a good man whether he finds not in his nature an inclination to the foulest sin in the world he that doth not feel this suggestion of concupiscence 〈◊〉 â—â—aâ—â—â— dead in disobedience Awâ—y then with this horrid opinion of the Pelagians which is both contrary to the truth of God and the Saints experience If Infants were not sinfull then they should need no Saviour Christ dyed in vain for them But God hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy upon all nay how could Infants die if they were not sinful death could have no power over them Rom. 6. ult which sin cannot proceed by imitation then the faculties of Infants should not be corrupted for they cannot imitate neither good nor evil yet they have sin or they could not die If it were possible to keep any children from hearing a ly or seeing the practise of any filthinesse or crueltie yet their very nature upon occasion offered would carrie them to these sins so that you shall find it is not by imitation but by corruption of nature that Infants becomes originally sinful Use 2. This discovers the great necessity of Infants Baptisme which though I do not hold with Suar. Vt si medicus infirmo dixerit nisi hanc acceperis medicinam non sanaberis c. an intrinsecal necessity as he expresseth it by this similitude As if the Physician should say to his Patient unlesse thou take this remedie thou shalt not be healed implying an absolute necessitie without which there can be no salvation yet I hold a necessity of the precept and means it being that Gospel-ordinance of imitation that doth render them Disciples and doth
manifest their visibilitie of membership in the Church of Christ which thing maketh greatly for the confirmation of the strength of their Parents for the present and their future comfort afterwards that as they are by nature so filthy and loathsome in the sight of God so the Lord hath in the blood of Jesus Christ whereof the water in Baptisme is a sign and seal provided a laver to wash and clense them in even the laver of regeneration which as Saint Paul cals it Tit. 3.5 yea a fountain opened as the Prophet speaks Zach. 13.1 for sin and for uncleannesse sufficient to clense them of all this filthinesse and corruption of their nature But here perchance may some object Obj. If Baptisme be so necessary what ground or precept have you for it out of Gods word Ans I answer this will appear unto us Mat. 28.19 where Christ commands his Disciples and in them all Ministers successively unto the end of the world to go and disciple all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which words of our saviour are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is make Disciples which is by by being admitted into Christs School their parents giving their names to Christ both for themselves and their families And in Christs precept teaching doth not go before but follow baptizing ver 20. teaching them to observe all things c. which is punctually observed in the children of the faithfull who after they are baptized when they come to years of discretion are taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded Obj. Though this be the command of Christ for the institution of Baptisme yet there is not one word of Infants nor any command giving for baptizing them Ans I answer a thing may be said to be commanded in Scripture two waies 1. Literally Syllabically terminis terminantibus in expresse termes 2. Implicitely by way of implication by good consequence though in the former sense Infant-Baptisme is not commanded yet in the latter it appears to be by promises proportions example and considerations of the like grounds and causes comparing Scripture with Scripture and look what can be thus proved is as strong and valid as though it were commanded in so many syllables and letters What command is there for women to partake of the Lords supper yet the proportion of the Lords Supper with the Passeover makes it lawfull What expresse command is there for a Sabbath in the new Testament yet by consequential grounds it doth appear to be so The least filings of gold is gold as well as the whole tag so whatsoever is drawn out of Scripture by just consequence and deduction is as well the word of God as that which is an expresse commandement or example in Scripture Tombes exam p. 110. 111. yea a learned Anabaptist doth confesse that a command by way of implication is equivalent to a command Now that Infants are thus included will appear in the word Nations and Them whereof Infants being an essential part without whom a Nation cannnot subsist are inclusively and collectively under the comprise of Christs command Yea 1 Cor. 10.1 2. to the 7th there you shall find a clear place à Typo ad veritatem from the type to the truth from the signes in the Law to the thing signified in the Gospel Aug. in Johan tract 26. sacramenta illa fuerunt in signis diversa in rebus quae significabantur paria that Infants are to be baptized For saies the Apostle all our Fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the Sea c. which cloud and seawere types of our baptism and did shadow it out unto us and by this all is meant all our Fathers which synechdochically is to be understood of all the people of Israel both young old men women and children they all were baptized unto Moses 1. under the conduct or guidance of Moses or into the Doctrine or law of Moses even the children as well as the parents as will appear Exod. 12.37 for we cannot imagine them so unnatural as to leave their children behind them in the wildernesse so that it appears plainly their Baptisme being the same in substance and signification as ours was that even children by name are within the compasse of Christs command Obj. How can such be baptized that are not capable of baptism who have not understanding to know any benefit by it Ans There is a two-fold incapacitie 1. Total Capaces sunt spiritus fidei per quem animos accipiunt esse spirituale ac supernaturale e. as in stocks and stones which have no life nor reasonable soul for the spirit to work upon as Infants have 2. Partial or a proximate incapacitie which are in Infants who though for the present are uncapable of actual faith and repentance yet not of the principal and root of both as they have in them a principal and root of reason though for the present they cannot act it Besides they are capable of Baptism as well as Circumcision under the law since they are meerly passive in both For what is circumcision but the same in substance with baptisme which the Apostle calls the seal of righteousnesse which is by faith Shall then the Gospel put them in a worse condition then they were before this were to abridge the mercie of Christ and draw it into a narrower compasse then he intended who to shew his mercy to Infants did take them into his armes and blessed them Mark 10.14 If then they were capable of blessing when they were not able to go but must be brought to Christ being such as of whom peculiarly the Kingdome of God consists Mat. 10.6 What then hinders but that they may be capable of the early charitie of the Church in bringing and admitting them to baptisme though they doe not understand the vow and receive benefit and advantage by partaking of it and rather when it is remembered that Christ baptized not at all and so thought not to baptize these did yet afford the ceremonie to them and in the antient Church was preparatorie and antecedent to baptisme viz. imposition of hands and blessing them which they being capable of shews them to be in as great a capacity of baptisme it being a passive ordinance when the person baptized is a meer patient as in the case of circumcision But to admit all further objections for the clearing of this truth it being already manifest from the capacity of Infants and the command of Christ it is sufficient to justifie the practise of Apostolicall Ministers in the advancement of this Ordinance for the good of them If any desire to be further satisfied hee may confer with the learned worthies of these times as Reverend Featly Reverend Baxter learned Hamond who have so clear'd this truth