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not tenacious of their antient rites after the Spirit was poured down upon them at Pentecoft, but knew they were now abolished, and at an end :-men, though they had seen little children brought to Chrift to have his hands laid on them, yet had never seen an infant baptized in their days :-men, who though they knew that infants were finners, and under a sentence of condemnation, and needed remiffion of fin and juftification, and that baptifm was a means of leading the faith of adult perfons to Chrift for them; yet knew that it was not by baptifm, but by the blood of Chrift, that these things are obtained :-men, that knew that Chrift came to fet up a new church-ftate; not national as before, but congregational; not confifting of carnal men, and of infants without understanding; but of spiritual and rational men, believers in Christ; and therefore could not be led to conclude that infants were comprehended in the commiffion: nor is Chrift's filence with respect to infants to be construed into a strong and moft manifeft prefumption in their favour, which would be prefumption indeed; or his not excepting them, a permiffion or order to admit them: perfons capable of making fuch conftructions, are capable of doing and saying any thing. I haften to The fourth argument, drawn from the evident and clear confequences of other paffages of fcripture'; as,

1. From Romans xi. 17. and if fome of the branches be broken off, &c. here let it be noted, that the olive tree is not the Abrahamic covenant or church, into which the Gentiles were grafted; for they never were grafted into the Jewish church, that, with all its peculiar ordinances, being abolished by Chrift; fignified by the shaking of the heaven and the earth, and the removing of things fhaken, but the gospel church-ftate, out of which the unbelieving Jews were left, and into which the believing Gentiles were engrafted, but not in the stead of the unbelieving Jews: and by the root and fatness of the olive-tree, are meant, not the religious privileges and grants belonging to the Jewish covenant or church, which the Gentiles had nothing to do with, and are abolished; but the privileges and ordinances of the gospel-church, which they with the believing Jews jointly partook of, being incorporated together in the fame church-state; and which, as it is the meaning of Romans xi. 17. fo of Ephefians iii. 6. in all which there is not the least syllable of baptifm; and much less of infant baptifm; or of the faith of a parent grafting his children with himself, into the church or covenantrelation to God, which is a mere chimera, that has no foundation either in reafon or scripture.

2. From Mark x. 14. Suffer little children to come unto me, &c. and John iii, 5. Except any one is born of water, &c, from these two paffages put together, it is faid, the

right

• Reasonable service, &c. p. 23-28.

Heb. xii. 26, 27.

BAPTISM. right of infants to baptifm may be clearly inferred; for in one they are declared actually to have a place in God's kingdom or church, and yet into it, the other as expressly fays, none can be admitted without being baptized. But fuppofing the former of thefe texts is to be understood of infants, not in a metaphorical sense, or of fuch as are compared to infants for humility, &c. which fenfe fome versions lead unto, and in which way fome Pædobaptifts interpret the words, particularly Calvin, but literally; then by the kingdom of God, is not meant the visible church on earth, or a gospel church-ftate, which is not national, but congregational; confifting of perfons gathered out of the world by the grace of God, and that make a public profeffion of the name of Chrift, which infants are incapable of, and so are not taken into it: befides, this fenfe would prove too much, and what this writer would not chufe to give into, viz. that infants, having a place in this kingdom or church, must have a right to all the privileges. of it; to the Lord's fupper, as well as to baptifm; and ought to be treated in all refpects as other members of it. Wherefore it fhould be interpreted of the kingdom of glory, into which we doubt not that fuch as these in the text are admitted; and then the ftrength of our Lord's argument lies here; that fince he came to fave such infants as these, as well as adult perfons, and bring them to heaven, they fhould not be hindered from being brought to him to be touched by him, and healed of their bodily diseases: and so the other text is to be understood of the kingdom of God, or heaven, in the fame fenfe; but not of water-baptifm as neceffary to it, or that without which there is no entrance into it; which mistaken, shocking and stupid sense of them, led Austin, and the African churches, into a confirmed belief and practice of infant-baptism; and this fenfe being imbibed, will justify him in all his monftrous, abfurd and impious tenets, as this writer calls them, about the ceremony of baptifmal water, and the abfolute neceffity of it unto falvation: whereas the plain meaning of the words is, that except a man be born again of the grace of the Spirit of God, comparable to water, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God, or be a partaker of the heavenly glory; or without the regenerating grace of the Spirit of God, which in Titus iii. 5. is called the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the holy Ghost, there can be no meetness for, no reception into, the kingdom of heaven; and therefore makes nothing for the baptizing of infants.

3. A diftinction between the children of believers and of unbelievers, is attempted from 1 Cor. vii. 14. as if the one were in a vifible covenant-relation to God, and the other not; whereas the text fpeaks not of two forts of children, but of one and the fame, under fuppofed different circumstances; and is to be understood not of any federal, but matrimonial holiness, as I have shewn VOL. II. Y Y elsewhere,

elsewhere, to which I refer the reader. As for the Queries with which the argument is concluded, they are nothing to the purpose, unless it could be made out, that it is the will of God that infants fhould be baptized, and that the baptifm of them would give them the remiffion of fins, and justify their perfons; neither of which are true: and of the fame kind is the barangue in the introduction to this treatife and after all a poor, flender provifion is made for the falvation of infants, according to this author's own scheme, which only concerns the infants of believers, and leaves all others to the uncovenanted mercies of God, as he calls them; feeing the former are but a very small part of the thousands of infants that every day languifh under grievous diftempers, are tortured, convulsed, and in piteous agonies give up the ghoft. Nor have I any thing to do with what this writer fays, concerning the moral purposes and use of infant-baptifm in religion; fince the thing itself is without any foundation in the word of God: upon the whole, the baptifm of infants is fo far from being a reasonable service, that it is a most unreasonable one; fince there is neither precept nor precedent for it in the facred writings; and it is neither to be proved by fcripture nor tradition.

The divine right of Infant-baptifm difproved, &c. p. 73-78.

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Some STRICTURES on what the faid AUTHOR has advanced concerning the Mode of BAPTISM.

A Book fome time ago being published in the Welch language, intitled, "A "Guide to a faving Knowledge of the Principles and Duties of Religion, "viz. Questions and Scriptural Anfwers, relating to the Doctrine contained in "the Church Catechifm," &c. Some extracts out of it respecting the ordinance of baptifm, its fubject, and mode, being communicated to me, with a request from our friends in Wales to make fome Reply unto, and alfo to draw up fome Reafons for diffenting from the church of England, both which I have undertook, and shall attempt in the following manner.

I shall take but little notice of what this author fays, part 5. p. 40. concerning fponfors in baptifm, but refer the reader to what is faid of them in the Reasons for diffenting, hereunto annexed. This writer himself owns, that the practice of having fureties is not particularly mentioned in fcripture; only he would have it, that it has in general obtained in the churches from the primitive times, and was enacted by the powers which God has appointed, and whofe ordinances are to be fubmitted to, when they are not contrary to thofe of God; and must be allowed to be of great fervice, if the fureties fulfilled their engagements. The anfwer to all which is, that fince it is not mentioned in fcripture, it deferves no regard; at leaft, this can never recommend it to fuch, who make the Bible the rule

1 Pet. ii. 13. Rom. xiii. 1, 2.

Y Y 2

Tit. iii. 1, 2.

rule of their faith and practice; and as to its obtaining in primitive times, it is indeed generally afcribed to Pope Hyginus, as an invention of his; but the genuineness of the epiftles attributed to him and others, is called in queftion by learned men, and are condemned by them as fpurious; but were they genuine, neither his office nor his age would have much weight and authority with us, who are not to be determined by the decrees of popes and councils: the powers fpoken of in the fcriptures referred to, were Heathen magiftrates, who furely had no authority to enact any thing relating to gofpel-worship and ordinances; nor can it be reasonably thought they fhould; and fubmiffion and obedience to them, are required in things of a civil nature, not ecclefiaftical, as the scope of the paffages, and their context manifeftly fhew; nor has God given power and authority to any fet of men whatever, to enact laws and ordinances of religious worship; nor are we bound to submit to all ordinances of men in religious matters, that are not contrary to the appointments of God, that is, that are not exprefsly forbidden in his word; for by this means, all manner of fuperftition and will-worship may be introduced. Oil and Spittle in baptifm are no where forbidden, nor is the baptizing of bells; yet thefe ordinances of men are not to be submitted to, and a multitude of others of the like kind: we are not only to take care to do what God has commanded, but to reject what he has not commanded; remembering the cafe of Nadab and Abiku, who offered ftrange fire to the Lord,, which he commanded not. And whereas it is fuggefted, that this practice would be very serviceable were the engagements of fureties fulfilled, it is not practicable they should; it is impoffible to do what they engage to do, even for themselves,. and much less for others, as is obferved in the Reasons, before referred to.

But paffing these things, I fhall chiefly attend to the twenty arguments, which this writer has advanced in favour of infant-baptifm, page 41-45.

The first argument runs thus: "Baptifm, which is a feal of the covenant of 66 grace, should not be forbid to the children of believers, seeing they are under "condemnation through the covenant of works; and if they are left without "an intereft in the covenant of grace, they then would be, to their parents great "distress, under a dreadful fentence of eternal condemnation, without any fign "or promise of the mercy of God, or of an intereft in Chrift; being by nature "children of wrath as others, and confequently without any hope of salvation, if "they die in their infancy." In which there are fome things true, and others falfe, and nothing that can be improved into an argument in favour of infantbaptifm. 1. It is true that the infants of believers, as well as others, are by nature the children of wrath, and under condemnation through the covenant of works; so all mankind are as considered in Adam, and in consequence of his fin

and

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