he fulfilled the Law making it up in full measures of the Spirit By these steps Baptism passed on to a divine Evangelical institution which we finde to be consigned by three Evangelists Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It was one of the last Commandements the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his kingdome For he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but Unlesse a man be born of Water and the holy Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises The uncircumcised child whose flesh is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant The Manichees Seleucus Hermias and their followers people of a dayes abode and small Interest but of malicious doctrine taught Baptism not to be necessary not to be used upon this ground because they supposed that it was proper to Iohn to baptize with water and reserved for Christ as his peculiar to baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise He sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire the Spirit appearing like a flame but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water and they did so and their successors after them every where and for ever not expounding but obeying the praeceptive words of their Lord which were almost the last that he spake upon earth And I cannot think it necessary to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments For the words are so plain that they need no exposition and yet if they had been obscure the universal practise of the Apostles and the Church for ever is a sufficient declaration of the Commandement No Tradition is more universal no not of Scripture it self no words are plainer no not the Ten Commandements and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any zealous or lesse discerning person it will need no other refutation but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself sees Scripture to be the Word of God and the Commandements to be the declaration of his Will But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacramnet for this will highly conclude That the Precept was for ever which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings and the susception of it necessary because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the graces of the Sacrament 1. The first fruit is That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ presented unto him consigned with his Sacrament enter into his Militia give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ and in all senses that we can become his Disciples witnessing a good confession and undertaking a holy life and therefore in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are conjoyn'd in the significations as they are in the mystery it is a giving up our names to Christ and it is part of the foundation of the first Principles of the Religion as appears in S. Pauls Catechism it is so the first thing that it is for babes and Neophytes in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity Ecclesiae janua Porta gratiae primus introitus sanctorum ad aeternam Dei Ecclesiae consuetudinem The gates of the Church the door of Grace the first entrance of the Saints to an eternall conversation with God and the Church Sacramentum initiationis intrantium Christianismum investituram S Bernard calls it The Sacrament of initiation and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion and the person so entring is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one of the Religion or a Proselyte and Convert and one added to the number of the Church in imitation of that of S. Luke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God added to the Church those that should be saved just as the Church does to this day and for ever baptizing Infants and Catechumens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are added to the Church that they may be added to the Lord and the number of the inhabitants of Heaven 2. The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Covenant which is an immediate consequent of the first presentation this being the first act of man that the first act of God And this is called by S. Paul a being baptized in one spirit into one body that is we are made capable of the Communion of Saints the blessings of the faithful the priviledges of the Church by this we are as S. Luke calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ordained or disposed put into the order of eternal life being made members of the mystical body under Christ our Head 3. And therefore Baptism is a new birth by which we enter into the new world the new creation the blessings and spiritualties of the Kingdome and this is the expression which our Saviour himselfe used to Nicodemus Unlesse a man be born of Water and the Spirit and it is by S. Paul called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the laver of Regeneration for now we begin to be reckoned in a new Census or account God is become our Father Christ our elder Brother the Spirit the earnest of our inheritance the Church our Mother our food is the body and blood of our Lord Faith is our learning Religion our imployment and our whole life is spiritual and Heaven the object of our Hopes and the mighty price of our high Calling And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us the Spirit of Grace which besides our soul and body is a principle of action of one nature and shall with them enter into the portion of our inherirance And therefore the Primitive Christians who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord usually writing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Iesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour they made an abbreviature by writing onely the Capitals thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which the Heathens in mockery and derision made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies a Fish and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach but the Christians owned the name and turned it into a pious Metaphor and were content that they
sometimes where Repentance is not and sometimes Repentance and Faith together and sometimes otherwise When Philip baptized the Eunuch he onely required of him to believe not to repent But S. Peter when he preached to the Jews and converted them onely required Repentance which although in their case implyed faith yet there was no explicit stipulation for it they had crucified the Lord of life and if they would come to God by Baptism they must renounce their sin that was all was then stood upon It is as the case is or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves In children the case is evident as to the one part which is equally required I mean Repentance The not doing of which cannot prejudice them as to the susception of Baptism because they having done no evil are not bound to repent and to repent is as necessary to the susception of Baptism as Faith is but this shews that they are accidentally necessary that is not absolutely not to all not to Infants and if they may be excused from one duty which is indispensably necessary to Baptism why they may not from the other is a secret which will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it And therefore when our blessed Lord made a stipulation and expresse Commandement for faith with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not He that believeth not shall be damned the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time for then no man could be converted from infidelity to the Christian faith and from the power of the Devil to the Kingdome of Christ but his present infidelity shall be his final ruine It is not therfore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not a sentence but a use a praediction and intermination It is not like that saying God is true and every man a lyar Every good and every perfect gift is from above for these are true in every instant without reference to circumstances but He that believeth not shall be damned is a prediction or that which in Rhetorick is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or a use because this is the affirmation of that which usually or frequently comes to passe such as this He that strikes with the sword shall perish by the sword He that robs a Church shall be like a wheel of a vertiginous and unstable estate He that loves wine and oyle shall not be rich and therefore it is a declaration of that which is universally or commonly true but not so that in what instance soever a man is not a believer in that instant it is true to say he is damned for some are called the third some the sixth some the ninth hour and they that come in being first called at the eleventh hour shall have their reward so that this sentence stands true at the day and the Judgement of the Lord not at the judgement or day of man And in the same necessity as faith stands to salvation in the same it stands to Baptisme that is to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent Our Baptism shall no more doe all its intention unlesse faith supervene then a man is in possibility of being saved without faith it must come in its due time but is not indispensably necessary in all instants and periods Baptism is the seal of our Election and Adoption and as Election is brought to effect by faith and its consequents so is Baptism but to neither is faith necessary as to its beginning and first entrance To which also I adde this Consideration That actual faith is necessary not to the susception but to the consequent effects of Baptism appears Because the Church and particularly the Apostles did baptize some persons who had not faith but were hypocrites such as were Simon Magus Alexander the Coper-smith Demas and Diotrephes and such was Iudas when he was baptized and such were the Gnostick Teachers For the effect depends upon God who knows the heart but the outward susception depends upon them who doe not know it which is a certain argument That the same faith that is necessary to the effect of the Sacrament is not necessary to its susception and if it can be administred to hypocrites much more to Infants if to those who really hinder the effect much rather to them that hinder not And if it be objected That the Church does not know but the pretenders have faith but she knows Infants have not I reply That the Church does not know but the pretenders hinder the effect and are contrary to the grace of the Sacrament but she knows that Infants doe not The first possibly may receive the grace the other cannot hinder it But beside these things it is considerable That when it is required persons have faith it is true they that require Baptism should give a reason why they doe so it was in the case of the Eunuch baptized by Philip But this is not to be required of others that doe not ask it and yet they be of the Church and of the Faith for by Faith is also understood the Christian Religion and the Christian Faith is the Christian Religion and of this a man may be though he make no confession of his faith as a man may be of the Church and yet not be of the number of Gods secret ones and to this more is required then to that to the first it is sufficient that he be admitted by a Sacrament or a Ceromony which is infallibly certain because hypocrites and wicked people are in the visible Communion of the Church and are reckoned as members of it and yet to them there was nothing done but the Ceremony administred and therefore when that is done to Infants they also are to be reckoned in the Church Communion And indeed in the examples in Scripture we finde more inserted into the number of Gods family by outward Ceremony then by the inward grace of this number were all those who were circumcised the eighth day who were admitted thither as the womans daughter was cured in the Gospel by the faith of their mother their natural parents or their spiritual To whose faith it is as certain God will take heed as to their faith who brought one to Christ who could not come himself the poor Paralytick for when Christ saw their faith he cured their friend and yet it is to be observed That Christ did use to exact faith actual faith of them that came to him to be cured According to your faith be it unto you The case is equal in its whole kinde And it is considerable what Christ saith to the poor man that came in behalfe of his son All things are possible to him that believeth it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his fathers faith and it was so in
should enjoy their pleasure in the Acostrich but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article Nos pisciculi secundum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nostrum Iesum Christum in aquâ nascimur Christ whom you call a fish we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour and we if you please are the little fishes for we are born in water thence we derive our spiritual life And because from henceforward we are a new creation the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors and at their entrance into Baptism the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives Nec quicquam prius imbuuntur quà m contemnere Deos exuere patriam parentes liberos fratres vilia habere said Tacitus of the Christians which was true in the sense onely as Christ said He that deth not hate father or mother for my sake is not worthy of me that is he that doth not hate them prae me rather then forsake me forsake them is unworthy of me 4. In Baptism all our sins are pardoned according to the words of a Prophet I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesse The Catechumen descends into the font a sinner he arises purified he goes down the son of death he comes up the son of the resurrection he enters in the son of folly and praevarication he returns the son of reconciliation he stoops down the childe of wrath and ascends the heir of mercy he was the childe of the Devil and now he is the servant and the son of God They are the words of Ven. Bede concerning this Mystery And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font which is so prettily contriv'd that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner and be exactly the same {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord wash my sin and not my face onely And so it is intended and promised Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins and call on the Name of the Lord said Ananias to Saul for Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with the washing of water in the word that is Baptism in the Christian Religion and therefore Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum a compendious laver that is an intire cleansing the soul in that one action justly and rightly performed In the rehearsal of which doctrine it was not an unpleasant Etymology that Anastasius Sinaita gave of Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quasi {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in which our sins are thrown off and they fall like leeches when they are full of blood and water or like the chains from S. Peters hands at the presence of the Angel Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an intirefull forgivenesse of sins so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny Omnia Daemonis arma His merguntur aquis quibus ille renascitur Infans Qui captivus erat the captivity of the soul is taken away by the blood of Redemption and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters and what the flames of hell are expiating or punishing to eternal ages that is washed off quickly in the Holy Font and an eternal debt paid in an instant for so sure as the Egyptians were drowned in the Red sea so sure are our sins washed in this holy flood for this is a Red sea too these waters signifie the blood of Christ these are they that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The blood of Christ cleanseth us the water cleanseth us the Spirit purifies us the Blood by the Spirit the Spirit by the Water all in Baptism and in pursuance of that baptismal state These three are they that bear record in earth the Spirit the Water and the blood {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} these three agree in one or are to one purpose they agree in Baptism and in the whole pursuance of the assistances which a Christian needs all dayes of his life And therefore S. Cyril calls Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Antitype of the Passions of Christ it does preconsign the death of Christ and does the infancy of the work of grace but not weakly it brings from death to life and though it brings us but to the birth in the new life yet that is a greater change then is in all the periods of our growth to manhood to a perfect man in Christ Iesus 5. Baptism does not onely pardon our sins but puts us into a state of pardon for the time to come Eor Baptism is the beginning of the New life and an admission of us into the Evangelical Covenant which on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endeavour to glorify God by Faith and Obedience and on Gods part he will pardon what is past assist us for the future and not measure us by grains and scruples or exact our duties by the measure of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand So that by Baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the graces of the Gospel that is that our pardon be continued and our piety be a state of Repentance And therefore that Baptism which in the Nicene Creed we profess to be for the remission of sins is called in the Ierusalem Creed The Baptism of Repentance that is it is the entrance of a new life the gate to a perpetual change and reformation all the way continuing our title to and hopes of forgiveness of sins And this excellency is clearly recorded by S. Paul The kindeness and love of God our Saviour toward man hath appeared not by works in righteousness which we have done that 's the formality of the Gospel-Covenant not to be exacted by the strict measures of the Law but according to his mercy he saved us that is by gentleness and remissions by pitying pardoning us by relieving and supporting us because he remembers that we are but dust and all this mercy we are admitted to and is conveyed to us {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by the laver of regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost And this plain evident doctrine was observed explicated and urged against the Messalians who said that Baptism was like a razor that cut away all the sins that were past or presently adhering but not the sins of our future life {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This Sacrament promises more and greater things It is the earnest of future good things the type of the Resurrection the communication of the Lords Passion the
Repentance are required to Baptism since the first is wholly nothing and infirm upon an infinite account and the second may conclude that Infants can no more be saved then be baptized because Faith is more necessary to Salvation then to Baptism it being said He that believeth not shall be damned and it is not said He that believeth not shall be excluded from Baptism it follows that the doctrine of those that refuse to baptize their Infants is upon both its legs weak and broken and insufficient Upon the suppositions of these grounds the Baptism of Infants according to the perpetual practise of the Church of God will stand firm and unshaken upon its own base For as the Eunuch said to Philip What hinders them to be baptized If they can receive benefit by it it is infallibly certain that it belongs to them also to receive it and to their Parents to procure it for nothing can deprive us of so great a grace but an unworthiness or a disability They are not disabled to receive it if they need it and if it does them good and they have neither done good nor evill and therefore they have not forfeited their right to it This therefore shall be the first great argument or combination of inducements Infants receive many benefits by the susception of Baptism and therefore in charity and in duty we are to bring them to Baptism 1. The first effect of Baptism is That in it we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ offered and presented unto him In which certainly there is the same act of worship to God and the same blessing to the children of Christians as there was in presenting the first-born among the Jews For our children can be Gods own portion as well as theirs and as they presented the first-born to God and so acknowledged that God might have taken his life in Sacrifice as well as the Sacrifice of the Lamb or the Oblation of a beast yet when the right was confessed God gave him back again and took a Lamb in exchange or a pair of Doves So are our children presented to God as forfeit and God might take the forfeiture and not admit the babe to the Promises of Grace but when the presentation of the childe and our acknowledgement is made to God God takes the Lamb of the World in exchange and he hath paid our forfeiture and the children are holy unto the Lord And what hinders here cannot a creeple receive an almes at the Beautiful gate of the Temple unlesse he goe thither himself Or cannot a gift be presented to God by the hands of the owners and the gift become holy and pleasing to God without its own consent The Parents have a portion of the possession Children are blessings Gods gifts and the Fathers greatest wealth and therefore are to be given again to him In other things we give something to God of all that he gives us all we doe not because our needs force us to retain the greater part and the less sanctifies the whole but our children must all be returned to God for we may love them and so may God too and they are the better our own by being made holy in their presentation whatsoever is given to God is holy every thing in its proportion and capacity a Lamb is holy when it becomes a Sacrifice and a Table is holy when it becomes an Altar a House is holy when it becomes a Church and a man is holy when he is consecrated to be a Priest and so is every one that is dedicated to Religion these are holy persons the others are holy things and Infants are between both they have the sanctification that belongs to them the holiness that can be of a reasonable nature offer'd and destin'd to Gods service but not in that degree that is in an understanding choosing person Certain it is that Infants may be given to God and if they may be they must be for it is not here as in goods where we are permitted to use all or some and give what portion we please out of them but we cannot doe our duty towards our children unless we give them wholly to God and offer them to his service and to his grace The first does honour to God the second does charity to the children The effects and real advantages will appear in the sequel in the mean time this Argument extends thus far that Children may be presented to God acceptably in order to his service And it was highly praeceptive when our blessed Saviour commanded that we should suffer little children to come to him and when they came they carried away a blessing along with them He was desirous they should partake of his merits he is not willing neither is it his Fathers will that any of these little ones should perish And therefore he dyed for them and loves and blessed them and so he will now if they be brought to him and presented as Candidates of the Religion and of the Resurrection Christ hath a blessing for our children but let them come to him that is be presented at the doors of the Church to the Sacrament of Adoption and Initiation for I know no other way for them to come Children may be adopted into the Covenant of the Gospel that is made partakers of the Communion of Saints which is the second effect of Baptism parts of the Church members of Christs Mystical body and put into the order of eternal life Now concerning this it is certain the Church clearly hath power to doe her offices in order to it The faithfull can pray for all men they can doe their piety to some persons with more regard and greater earnestnesse they can admit whom they please in their proper dispositions to a participation of all their holy prayers and communions and preachings and exhortations and if all this be a blessing and all this be the actions of our own charity who can hinder the Church of God from admitting Infants to the communion of all their pious offices which can doe them benefit in their present capacity How this does necessarily infer Baptism I shall afterwards discourse * But for the present I enumerate That the blessings of Baptism are communicable ro them they may be admitted into a fellowship of all the Prayers and Priviledges of the Church and the Communion of Saints in blessings and prayers and holy offices But that which is of greatest perswasion and convincing efficacy in this particular is That the children of the Church are as capable of the same Covenant as the children of the Jews But it was the same Covenant that Circumcision did consign a spiritual Covenant under a veil and now it is the same spiritual Covenant without the veil which is evident to him that considers it thus The words of the Covenant are these I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect I will multiply thee exceedingly
for a storm for their children were circumcised and if not baptized then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of for S. Paul said unto you Whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law These children therefore that were circumcised stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Laws of Ceremonies to be presented into the Temple to pay their price to be redeemed with silver and gold to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal ordinances and therefore if they had been thus left it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult they used to do it for less matters To which let this be added That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christs Ascension and S. Marks Gospel twelve years In the mean time to what Scriptures did they appeal by the analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions whence did they prove their Articles They onely appealed to the Old Testament and onely added what their Lord superadded Now either it must be said that our blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized which is no where pretended and if it were cannot at all be proved or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God and preach the Religion it is plain that by the Analogy of the Old Testament that is of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come and to have suffered they also approved the Baptism of Infants or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews of which also the Church did then principally consist 7. That Baptism which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection doth also equally consign Infants to it hath nothing that I know of pretended against it there being the same signature and the same grace and in this thing all being alike passive and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of grace and Infants have an equall necessity as being lyable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents and dying sooner then men and women and less able to complain and more apt to be pityed and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life and a speedy death infelicitate priscorum hominum with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents and therefore have as great need as any and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another 8. And after all this if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace we have nothing to relye upon but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of salvation save onely we are to adde this that because of this law Infants are not personally capable but the Church for them as for all others indefinitely we have reason to believe that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplyed but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability This we may be certain of that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation for by nature we are children of wrath and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature either therefore children must be put into the state of grace or they shall dwell for ever where Gods face does never shine Now there are but two wayes of being put into the state of grace and salvation the inward by the Spirit and the outward by Water which regularly are together If they be renewed by the Spirit what hinders them to be baptized who receive the holy Ghost as well as we If they are not capable of the Spirit they are capable of Water and if of neither where is their title to heaven which is neither internal nor external neither spiritual nor sacramental neither secret nor manifest neither natural nor gracious neither original nor derivative And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter heaven without any difference expressed or case reserved we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children but may weep as they that have no hope We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand and then it cannot miscarry and though we know nothing of the children yet we know much of Gods goodness But when God hath permitted it to us that is offered and permitted children to our ministery whatever happens to the Innocents we may well fear left God will require the souls at our hands and we cannot be otherwise secure but that it will be said concerning our children which S. Ambrose used in a case like this Anima illa potuit salva fieri si habuisset purgationem This soul might have gone to God if it had been purified and washed We know God is good infinitely good but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness and he tempts him that leaves the usual way and pretends it is not made for him and yet hopes to be at his journeys end or expects to meet his childe in heaven when himself shuts the door against him which for ought he knows is the onely one that stands open S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants therefore he is called durus Pater Infantium though I know not why the original of that opinion should be attributed to him since S. Ambrose said the same before him as appears in his words above quoted in the margent And now that I have enumerated the blessings which are consequent to Baptism and have also made apparent That Infants can receive these blessings I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring children to Baptism If it be certain they may receive these good things by it it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety and sacriledge and uncharitableness in the world Nay if it be onely probable that they receive these blessings or if it be but possible they may nay unless it be impossible they should and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty innocents to let their crying be unpityed and their natural misery eternally irremediable and their sorrows without remedy and their souls no more capable of relief then their bodies of Physick and their death left with the sting in and their Souls without Spirits to go to God and no Angel guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and Gods Church All these are sad stories There are in