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A80339
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Confidence corrected, error detected, and truth defended; or Some farther reflections upon the two Athenian Mercuries lately publish'd about infant-baptism. By Philalethes Pasiphilus.
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Pasiphilus, Philalethes.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing C5803A; ESTC R223470
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47,010
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51
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Certainly Sirs you can never think that these two Propositions receive Countenance and Confirmation from this Text For first If Infants are not excluded from Baptism by this Text good now do so much as tell us who are Secondly If Persons may be baptized by this Text without being first taught pray be so kind as to tell us who by this Text are not to be baptiz'd If you think none are excluded or if there can be none in the World that are not to be baptiz'd I wish you would tell us so in words at length that we might readily give you the Reputation of extraordinary Doctors of Divinity Pray Gentlemen tell us also plainly how you think the Apostles by virtue of this Commission were to make Disciples of Christ in order to their being baptiz'd Were they to make People Disciples of Christ meerly by looking upon them without speaking a word to them This indeed seems to be the Design of your struggle in your two Papers namely that the Apostles were to disciple People to Christ where-ever they came without teaching them any thing in order thereunto Which he that can believe certainly need stick at nothing for if People may be Disciples of Christ without being taught then they may be Disciples of Christ without learning any thing at all and if so then sure one would think that all the World should in every or any Capacity ipso facto be Disciples of Christ And yet again they were to be made Disciples before they could be so and the Apostles were to do something in order to the making them so but what that was who can imagine for they were not to speak a word to them to teach them any thing about it Sirs why do you strive thus by your confused Confidence to deceive People and bring them into a miserable Maze Besides if this were the Design of the Commission that the Apostles were to make Disciples without Teaching then these two things will follow First That our Translators of the Text were either very Ignorant and knew not how to translate the Words as they should have done or else very unfaithful that they did not For they have by their Translation of the Text given us occasion to believe almost whether we will or no that Teaching must precede Baptism and really it seems to agree so mightily not only with Reason it self but also with other Scriptures that we can do no less than think it true 2dly If this were the Sense and Design of the Place then if the Apostles had ever presum'd to preach the Gospel to any Body before they had baptiz'd them they had gone quite besides their Commission and broke the Command of their Master for either they were to teach People by this Commission before they baptiz'd them or they were not if they were then all your strange Prattle to the contrary is gone if they were not then that which I have said must follow Or else there must be two Commissions in this one contra-distinct to each other given out in the self-same Words which can be but of one Signification and yet must be understood in two quite contrary to each other that is you shall and you shall not teach People before you baptize them And how consonant these things are to Scripture and Reason let all the World judg But alas were it not for the sake of the poor Ignorant World that are apt to be taken with any thing you say we need not take any pains to confute you for after you had been pedling a while to make Folks believe that the Apostles were to make Disciples without Teaching you presently even in the Prosecution of your Proof contradict and confute your selves for you say Mathetéusate which signifies to disciple all Nations is a general Word and contains in it the other two that follow viz. Baptizontes kai didáscontes Baptizing and Teaching the Commission is to disciple and the Manner how is Baptizing and Teaching both it seems as well as one without which a Disciple cannot be made Is not this a clear Confession that Teaching is as necessary and essential to the making of Disciples as Baptizing And if so what will you do for Infant-Disciples Are you not as far to seek now as ever your were What are you the nearer if this be true to baptize your Infants unless you teach them too you even leave them as you found them no more Disciples of Christ than they were before and if so had not you better still let the Needle go before the Thrid or Teaching before Baptizing than thus to strive to teach the World a ridiculous Trade and take a deal of Pains to no purpose Though when all 's done it 's very plain from Scripture that Persons may be made Disciples of Christ before Baptism as indeed they ought even by this Commission of our Saviour and that by Teaching too and then to be baptiz'd and this is not only agreeable to the Current of Scripture in many other places but particularly most exactly to Joh. 4.1 Jesus made and baptiz'd more Disciples than John first made them Disciples then they were baptiz'd Secondly You say Children are capable of Proselytism as may be observ'd from our Saviour's Words Suffer little Children to come unto me which your great Skill in the Greek tells us is the same with to proselyte Now how you would be understood here I know not whether you reckon that their bare coming to Christ were their Proselytism or whether they come to Christ with a design and purpose to be proselyted to him some other way If the former then all that came to Christ when he was upon Earth upon any account whatsoever tho it was to betray him were immediately by that very Act proselyted to him the Act it self was their Proselytism but if they came with a design and purpose to be proselyted to Christ by any other way as he pleased to direct and instruct them then certainly they could not be such eight-days-old Proselytes as you frequently baptize Now Sirs we deny not but when Christ was personally upon Earth little Children might either come to him or be brought to him upon divers occasions as well as others and so far as that very thing made Proselytes of them such Proselytes let them be who shall hinder it But then that Act must be perform'd or else that Proselytism has no being But now Christ is not upon Earth Ergo there 's no insisting upon this now And whoever is capable of coming to Christ now with a Design and Purpose to be proselyted to him by Faith Repentance Love c. let them be young or old we are so far from hindring them that we had rather do all we can to help them forward But if this don't please you good now do so much as tell us plainly what you mean by Proselytism when you say Children are capable of Proselytism wherein lies their Capacity or what is it
which you here pretend with so much Indignation to explode And why may not we reflect upon you as well as you upon us by telling you That we may with all the Indignation imaginable explode that uncharitable Position of Pedo-Baptists that say Infants have no more Right to the Lord's Supper than unreasonable Creatures Is not this altogether as sayable from your practice as the other is from theirs and is not this as bad and as uncharitable a Position as the other What 's the Matter Sirs that you seem to be so quick-sighted abroad and so very blind at home But above all things I perceive I must not forget the Instance of the Ruler's Daughter for it seems there lies so much strength in that for Infant-Baptism that it must be reckon'd a piece of Cowardise to evade it You say you would ask such Persons who deny Infants uncapable of Baptism because they can shew no actual Sign of it By the way Sirs I must demand of you who are the Persons you mean here that deny Infants to be uncapable of Baptism Surely you cannot mean the People you call Anabaptists for they plainly say that Infants are uncapable of Baptism and if any will say that they can and do give Actual Signs and Demonstrations of their Incapacity in that Case I shall not reckon it worth my while to contradict them Here Sirs you seem to be so eager in the discharge of this Mortar-piece that you have miserably over-shot your selves which you it seems look'd upon to be so formidable that because the Gentleman in his Animadversions thought it had been empty and so passed it by as a useless thing you reckon it was because he was afraid to come near it Well however some Body it is you have a mind to ask what they think of the Ruler's Daughter Our Saviour say you bid him only believe and it should be done Would not any now be ready to think that surely this must be some plain Instance of Infant-Baptism when they that are suppos'd to deny it are so briskly and closely call'd upon to tell their Thoughts of such a particular Instance that is in short without any Paraphrase brought to confute them Certainly if it chance to prove a Story of another Nature and relate to another thing and not at all to Infant-Baptism our Gentlemen then must needs be strangely impertinent and deserve to be corrected in their Imperious Confidence Now let any body for tryal-sake but read the Story as it 's recorded by three Evangelists in Mat. 9. Mark 5. and Luke 8. and they will find it to be only a Story wherein is comprehended an excellent Relation of our Saviour's Power and Compassion towards poor Mortals manifested in restoring a young Damsel to Life and Health even when she was supposed to have been dead And now Sirs my Thoughts of the Ruler's Daughter is that she was recover'd by our Saviour from a very dangerous Distemper and given as it were again to her Father as a fresh token of our Saviour's Kindness to him And for you only to say as you do in your Second Paper this shews that believing Parents Faith avail for their Children What is it you talk of you must needs know 't is nothing to your purpose For in the Sense of this Text who ever deny'd it We deny not but the Father's Faith Humility and Love to Christ might and did greatly avail herein as to the Recovery and Restoration of his Daughter but still we deny that she immediately became a true and proper Subject of Baptism by her Father's Faith there is not the least Shadow of such an availment in the Text Our Saviour doth not say believe and thy Daughter shall be baptized nor any thing tending thereunto And Sirs you ought to know that if you plead for Infant-Baptism upon the Parents Faith nothing short of such a-like Instance will or can do your Business You know very well that whether a good Man's Faith and pious Endeavours may or may not be available in the behalf of a Child a Wife a Servant a Neighbour a Friend yea or an Enemy either in some respects is no part of the Question in Debate And if you should affirm that it may and sometimes is available who do you think will be your Enemy therein Now for you to clap your Wings as it were and crow as if you had got some famous Victory by discharging this Piece when you know you have not so much as kill'd a Flea in your Enemies Quarters What strange Men are you Pray Sirs why were you not so publick-spirited as to bring in the Centurion's Servant to take his share of Right to Baptism out of the common stock of second-hand Faith Was not his Master's Faith as available to him as the Ruler's was to his Daughter Pray read the Story in Mat. 8. and Luke 7. and you may easily perceive it was so Now what Rule is this for you to baptize any of your Servants whether they believe or not believe meerly because you your selves believe and plead their Right to Baptism by virtue of your Faith Besides If this Argument were good for the purpose you bring it I cannot imagine who must be excluded from Baptism For it will not only take in any ungodly Person whatsoever upon whose account a godly Man may in some respects prevail with God but it will take in whole Cities of ungodly Men by the Lump and make them all immediately true Subjects of Baptism without any Change or Alteration at all in themselves For you know God upon Abraham's Request offer'd to spare the whole City of Sodom if there could have been but Ten Righteous Persons found in it And it had certainly been sav'd from that fearful and amazing Ruin and Destruction that befel it if only Ten had been there found Now the Argument is the same in its Nature and Consequence tho they were not found as if they had been found and if they had been there found pray tell us what you would have to be the Consequence of your Argument concerning all the rest of the Inhabitants And if God should shew any Kindness to any City Place or Kingdom now a-days upon the account of the Faith and Prayers of some Righteous Persons as there 's no doubt but he doth Would not this Argument turn all the Inhabitants immediately into Subjects of Baptism And who knows but in your next you may improve it to the utmost and why not For it is of the same Stamp with the Ruler's Daughter And we know you are Valiant and dare venture upon very great Undertakings You likewise tell us That 't is a great Weakness to believe Children not baptized from the example of the Jaylor Indeed Sirs I rather think 't is a greater Weakness for any to believe they were If by that ambiguous Term Children you mean little Infants such as you frequently baptize And 't is not your Syriac Latiniz'd that will help you