refusers of Christ and Salvation When men do consent they are under his further Administring Laws The said efficient causes are Gods Actions 1. As Omnipotent Owner 2. As Benefactor 3. As Sapiential Rector 1. According to the first he giveth us our Being and preserveth it and in him we Live and Move and Are. 2. As our Benefactor antecedent to his Administration he gave the world a Redeemer absolutely and reprieved the world and us and giveth us all common Antecedent Mercies 3. As the Rector de jure of men not yet consenting he maketh the Law of Grace absolutely and antecedently to any condition of making it on our part This Law hath the preceptive part commanding consent faith and repentance 2. The Donative or promissory part giving us Christ in Relation and right to his present benefits if we consent which is the condition 3. And the penalty aforesaid The Administration of the Kingdom de jure is the efficient of the consenting Kingdom The Administration or Actual Government of the Consenting Kingdom is by Legislation Judgement and Execution And the Legislation is 1. For the constitution of the particular members that shall from time to time be added 2. And the Governing of them all Now if God have made a Law that men shall be received members of Christ and his Church if they consent or Repent and Believe and formerly to the Israelites if they be Consenters or their seed who consent by them then it is an act of distributive justice of God as Judge to give these benefits to Consenters And to contradistinguish an act of bounty unless he say meer bounty is intolerable For God governeth us Paternally as a Regent-benefactor He never gave reward to a Creature Man or Angel which was not a Gift as to the value of the thing and a Reward only as to the ordo conferendi ratio recipiendi It is madness to think that we can merit from God commutatively And it 's little better to think that bounty and distributive justice may not consist yea that there can be any right quoad ordinem distribuendi from that justice which is not quoad rem donatam from bounty It is sad therefore that the world must see that looking all how to make good an espoused cause should tempt so Ancient and Learned a Divine to subvert the Gospel and all Christianity For what doth he less If he talk only of members by obligation every living man is a member This he meaneth not If he talk only of Consenting voluntary Members to say that God commandeth none to be such is to say that he commandeth none to be Christians to Repent Believe or Consent To say that he hath made no promise or Donative Act in the Law of Grace that if you consent repent and believe you shall have union with Christ and his Church or be members is to deny the very summ of all the Gospel and Baptism it self To say that God doth not as Judge execute his own Law and promise giving this union to Consenters and denying it to Refusers is to say that he will not as a Judge absolve Believers or condemn Vnbelievers O Reader hate faction and partial disputes that can make men overthrow all Christianity not knowing what they do 2. And his denying that visible Church-membership is a thing offered and rightly to be accepted is the same even to deny that Christ inviteth any Infidel to become a Christian or ever called or commanded Heathens to believe or sent his Ministers to compel them to come in that his house may be filled But his slander that I say all that man hath from God is of debt is forged groundlesly I say God giveth some benefits antecâ—dently and absolutely and some consequently on condition by a Law And none of them all are of debt as a workman deserveth his wages with commutative justice It is his gross error that visible Church-membership of Infants among the Jews was not a thing offered on condition of Parents faith and to be accepted or refused but a state resulting from Gods fact He feigneth a Church to be formally quid Physicum sure He that would not consent to the Covenant was by Asa to be put to death And was not Circumcision a covenanting act And did they not thereby profess to take God for their God or would God else have taken them for his people And would not renouncing God have cut them off And would their seed then have had any right for being theirs Indeed it is disputable how far some Ancestors or other Proprietors might be a medium of right to such Apostates seed but as theirs there is no dispute SECT XXIII R. B. I Am next to prove the consequence that this right was conferred by some grant promise or Covenant of God And this is as easie as to prove that the world was made by Gods power and efficiency or will or to prove that God is the owner of all things and no man can receive them but by his gift 1. If there be no other way possible for right to be conveyed from God to us but only by his grant promise or Covenant which we call donation and is a moral civil action then it is by this means that it is conveyed But there is no other possible way of such conveyance Ergo we have no right till God give us right His will signified createth our right No man can have right to that which is wholly and absolutely anothers but by his consent or will This will is no way known but by some signs of it These signs of such a will for conveyance of right to a benefit are a civil moral action called a donation or gift simply If the sign be in writing we commonly call it a deed of gift If it be by word of mouth conferring a present right we call it a verbal grant or gift If it confer only a future right we call it a promise and sometimes a Covenant and sometimes the word Covenant signifieth both that act which gives a present right and promiseth a continuance of it Right being a moral or civil thing can be no way conveyed but by a moral or civil action A gift that was never given is a contradiction So that this part of our controversie is as easie as whether two and two be four Mr. T. Visible Church-membership is not a Right but a state of Being as to be strong healthy rich c. which are not given by a civil moral action but by Providence of God acting Physically as the Soveraign disposer of all I deny therefore that there is such a promise Reply Reader it is not long of me that this Learned Ancient Divine knoweth not what a Church-member is or else what is the difference between Ethicks or Politicks and Physicks But it is our shame that a Preacher in England should be sound so ignorant God as the Fountain of nature and Omnipotent Lord of all is indeed the first
Donative Instrument of God which saith He that believeth shall be justified may effect my Justification when I believe and not before though my faith effect it not at all but dispose the recipient But I deny that the Parents faith being put all the capacity of the recipient is put even when he is born For if it be possible for the Parent to consent for himself and not for his child and to devote himself and not his child to God part of the condition of reception is wanting As far as I perceive could I but hope to be so happy a disputant as to convince Mr. T. that Church-membership visible is any benefit at all it self or was to the Israelites he would grant me all that I plead for of the conveyance of it by Covenant And if I cannot it is a hard case SECT LXXXVI R. B. THe second Commandment Exod. 20.5 6. Deut. 5.9 10. I think is a law and containeth a promise or premiant part wherein he promiseth to shew mercy to the generations or children of them that love him and keep his Commandments of which I have also spoken elsewhere to which I refer you I see no reason to doubt but here is a standing promise and discovery of Gods resolution concerning the children of all that love him whether Jews or Gentiles to whom this Commandment belongs nor to doubt whether this mercy imply Church-membership And that this is fetcht from the very gracious nature of God I find in his proclaiming his Name to Moses Exod. 34.6 7. Mr. T. If this mercy here imply Church-membership to the Infants of them that love him to a thousand Generations then it implieth it to all the Infants in the world But there is nothing to prove that this mercy must be Church-membership or that it must be to all the children of them that love God or that it must be to them in Infancy I incline to conceive this a promise of temporal mercies chiefly to the Israelites Reply 1. That it is not only of temporal mercies the words Love and Hate as the qualification of the Parents seem to prove and the joyning the children to the Parents in the retribution And all the terms seem above such a sense It is the revenge of a jealous God on Idolaters and mercy to his Lovers that is spoken of And the joyning this Command to the first which setleth our relation to God with the Laws annexed in Deut. for the cutting off whole Cities Parents and Children that turn from God to Idols sheweth that it reached to Church-Communion and Life 2. And that it was not only to the Israelites whatever you chiefly mean is proved both in that it is in the Decalogue and the proclaimed name of God Exod. 34.5 6. and exemplified throughout the Scripture and in the Gospel 2. As to the extent we can hardly expect that the world should endure a thousand Generations Therefore it can mean but that God who boundeth the punishment to the third and fourth generation will set no bounds to the succession of his mercies while our capacity continueth And whatever the mercies be the exposition of this continuance concerneth you as much as me 3. As to the conditions I doubt not but it supposeth that the child at age imitate the Parents in their Love or Hatred duty or sin And that if on Repentance the Parent be forgiven his sin may not be visited to the third and fourth And if a child of Godly Parents turn wicked the right is intercepted 4. But the Commandment with the foresaid exposition shews that God meaneth that his Retribuâ—ion to Parents that Love or Hate him shall extend to their children as such unless they interrupt it at age by their own acts And if to their children qua tales then to Infants And it speaketh such a state of mercy as cannot in reason be conceived to belong to them without and can mean no less than Gods visible favour by which the Church is differenced from the world when Lovers and Haters are distinguished sides And when God hath Recorded this decreed granted distinguished mercy to the children of the faithful as such in the Tables of stone sure it is a visible notification which will make them visible favorites and Church-members as soon as they visibly exist And the quatenus seemeth to me to prove that it extendeth to all the children of the faithful because it is to them as such But it followeth not that it must extend to them all alike as to equal mercies nor yet that the sin of Parents after may make no kind of forfeiture But of this I have said more in my Christian Directory SECT LXXXVII to XCIV R. B. IN Psal 102.28 It is a general promise the children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be established before thee It is usual in the Old Testament to express Gods favour by temporal blessings more than in the Gospel but yet still they secure us of his favour As I will not fail thee nor forsake thee might secure Joshua more than us of temporal successes and yet not more of Gods never failing favour There is a stable promise to all Gods people in general that have children Psal 103.17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto childrens children And to be secured by promise of Gods mercy and righteousness is the state of none without the Church And if they were all to be kept out of the Church I scarce think that Children would be called an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb his reward Psal 127.3 nor the man happy that hath his quiver full of them Nor would the sucking children be called as part of the solemn assembly to the humiliation Joel 2.16 2 Chron. 20.13 There is a standing promise to all the just Prov. 20.7 The just man walketh in his integrity his children are blessed after him There is no sort of men without the Church that is pronounced blessed in Scripture A blessed people are Gods people and those are the Church separated from the cursed world One lower blessing will not denominate a man or society a blessed man or society If it were a good argument then Deut. 4.37 because he loved thy fathers therefore he chose their seed after them then it is good still as to favour in general So Deut. 10.15 Psal 69.36 Prov. 11.21 The seed of the righteous shall be delivered In Psal 37.26 there is a general promise to or declaration of the righteous that his seed is blessed and then they are Church-members In Isa 61.8 9. it is promised I think of Gospel times I will make an everlasting Covenant with them and their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their off-spring among the people all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed And cap. 62.12 They shall call them the
devote himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost according to the Baptismal Covenant and solemnly profess himself a Christian that man were a true member of the visible Church though defective as to the mode of entrance and were to be numbered with Christians And Constantine and many another were called Christians long before they were baptized And it were injurious to the Rationality and spirituality of Christs Covenant to feign him to be so ceremonious as to reject a sound professing believer for want of water § 23. Though Augustine be called durus pater Infantum and be supposed for some passages by many Papists and others to damn all unbaptized persons save Martyrs yet these following words among others in his later times in his deliberate disputes against the Donatists fully shew his contrary judgement which yet I believe the Interest of his cause against the Donatists was a help to in this point And remember that he confirmeth it in his Retractations by retracting only the instance of the thief on the cross as uncertain whether he was baptized or not § 24. Aug de baptis cont Donat. li. 4. c. 29. Quod etiam atque etiam considerans invenio non tantum Passionem pro nomine Christi id quod ex Baptismo deerat posse supplere sed etiam Fidem conversionemque Cordis si forte ad celebrandum mysterium baptismi in angustiis temporum succurri non potest Et Cap. 24. Cum Ministerium baptismi non contemptus religionis sed articulus necessitatis excludit baptismus quidem potest inesse ubi conversio cordis defuerit Conversio autem cordis potest quidem inesse non percepto baptismo sed contempto non potest neque enim ullo modo dicenda est conversio cordis ad Deum cum Dei sacramentum contemnitur Conversion then will save without baptism when baptism is not contemned It is the contempt that destroyeth and that as it proveth men unconverted And this he professeth to be his judgement after long and great consideration § 25. Baptism is to Christianity much like what Ordination is to the sacred Ministry and what solemn Matrimony is to Marriage It is necessary as a Duty and as a Means to our ordinary and regular admittance to the Communion of the Church But as in case there were no Ordainer to be had in a far Countrey in America no doubt but a qualified person might become a Pastor rather than God should have no Church nor be solemnly worshipped And as in case there could be no regular solemnization of Marriage as in such a wilderness a published consent may tie the knot so in case there could be no Baptizing a solemn Profession and Covenanting would serve to Gods acceptance and to a right to the Christian name § 26. I only leave it to Christian Charity and wisdom to consider how far some mens Education natural weakness of judgement and other impediments of information may make their error against Infant Baptism to participate of such a Necessity The case hath its difficulties Papists and Protestants confess it as to Scripture evidence Weak men cannot know all things And even considerable heads that have heard and thought of much against it which they cannot answer may grow very confident that they are in the right and after by that prejudice may become uncapable of what should satisfie them Abundance of the sons of the Church that talk most against them give such weak reasons for Infant Baptism and are so unable to confute an Anabaptist as sheweth that it is not More knowledge but somewhat else more inclining them to the truth therein that keepeth them right § 27. If the case were whether the Lords Supper might be Administred with Beer or Milk where there is no Wine Or whether Baptism might be Administred by Milk or Wine where there is no water suppose the affirming party were certainly in the right yet if the contrary minded should say I own Christs Sacrament and solemnly profess my consent to his Covenant and I would participate as you do but that I take it to be a sin and with all the means that I can use in conference reading meditation prayer my judgement is not changed I should not break such communion with such a man as he were capable and willing to hold with the Church And how near some Anabaptists case is to this I leave to consideration § 28. But making no question but many of them are far better men than I and knowing my self lyable to error and knowing how much Christ in his promises layeth upon sincerity of Faith and Love more than upon ceremony and having endeavoured to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice As I am far more offended at their Schism or separation from Communion with our Churches than at their opinion so I will here lay down those terms on which I am perswaded good and sober men will be willing on both sides to agree and hold communion Or on which I am sure I would gladly live in brotherly love and communion with them my self § 29. Let the Anabaptists consent to and profess as followeth or to this sense Though we judge Infant Baptism dissonant from Christs instituted order yet finding that God hath made many promises to the seed of the faithful above others and that Christ expressed his readiness to receive little children when they were brought to him for his blessing and knowing that all Christian Parents should earnestly desire that their children may be the children of God through Christ and should devote them to him as far as is in their power and knowing that there are difficulties about the extent of this power and Christs promises we do here solemnly profess that we thankfully desire all those mercies for this child which God hath promised to such in his word and that we heartily offer devote and dedicate this child to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as far as he hath given us power to do it beseeching him accordingly to accept him And we promise faithfully to endeavour to educate him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and as we are able to perswade him when he is capable to believe in Christ and solemnly devote himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Baptism Let this much be done in the Church or so openly as may satisfie the Church that they are not despisers of Gods mercies nor their childrens souls Much more would it tend to our quietness and concord if those that profess that they cannot satisfie their consciences in their Infant Baptism would but do as the Liturgie doth by those whose Baptism is uncertain If thou be not Baptized I Baptize thee and so would say Being uncertain whether my Infant Baptism be valid If it be not I now receive that which is And when they have satisfied their consciences would live quietly in the Love and communion of the Church Who would