CHAPTER I.

ANd when we have done all, we must all dye. Yea: Howsoe­ver we are parted in the lines of Life, we must all meet in the Point of Death, as in a full point. Death! What is Death? Heathe­nish Plato describes it with a Divine Plato in Phaedone. and Christian Character. [...]: Death is the dissolution of the Soule and Bo­dy. And the Latine Orator lookes with a full eye upon the Platonists, when he saith: Sunt qui Discessum Cicero Tusc. Qu [...]st lib. 1. Animae à Corpore putent esse Mor­tem: There are who think Death to [Page 2] be a Departure of the Soule from the Body.

What these thought, and was to them a matter of Opinion, which is Assensus pendulus, a wavering assent: is to us Materia Fidei, a Matter of Faith, which is Assensus immobi­lis, a firme and immoveable Assent to the revealed Truth of God.

Saint Paul was the Instrument of Revelation, and hath settled it: first, as having a desire to depart: dissolvi, Philip. 1. 23 Interp. vul­gat. Tixt. Graec. 2 Tim. 4. 6. Edit. vulg. Cod [...] Gr [...]c saies the Vulgar: and the Originall, [...], to be dissolved: (when he was in bivio, in a way betwixt two waies:) And secondly; as pro­phecying, the time of my departure is at hand. The Vulgar: Tempus re­solutionis meae. It is O' [...], in the Original: the time or opportunity of my Resolution or Dissolution,

The Philosophicall Reason is: (this being also a Philosophicall Truth, and there being Philosophicall Reasons of all Divine Truths which are not mysterious, miraculous, or meerly de­pending upon Divine Pleasure.) As Life results from the Union; So, by the Logicall Rule of Contraries, (it is [Page 3] the same case with proportion in pri­vatives,) Death, from the Disuni­on of Soule and Body. The Rule is: Contrariorum contraria est Ratio, The Course of Contraries is contra­ry.

And Death, as the Lion, wounds Fra [...]zius in Leone. not a part, or member only, but di­vides and rends in peeces the whole substance; and subverts the Being caused by the Composition of essenti­all Parts.

CHAP. II.

ANd when we have done all, we must all dye: must be dissolved. And then, whither the Parts dissol­ved▪ our Soules and Bodies (ours in particular) shall go, (the Devill sit­ting See Jer. 3. 2 S. Hieron. lb. for us by the way, as the Ara­bian in the wildernesse, for the Pas­sengers; or, according to St Hierom, ut Latro, as a Robber; the Arabians being mighty Robbers and Hunters of Men in the Wildernesse;) and how they shall fare, resolve it fairely and positively he that can.

Two States are assigned to every Soule: The State of Conjunction [Page 4] with the Body, and the State of Separation from it. Of the first, we have long triall: Of the second, we never yet had any. No living Man or Woman knows experimentally, what is the departure of a Soule from a Body: or, what Subsistance, Ad­herence, Condition, Companions, Re­lations a Soule hath in the State of Separation.

Now, me thinkes, He and She that may, this very night, be turned over, by Dissolution, to this wonder­full, unknown, and unfathomed State of Separation; should be very carefull what they beleeve, and how they live: Especially, the Life of Man being a very Bubble. A Bubble puts on the forme of an Hemisphere: And shadowing halfe the World, as being an Hemisphere; it according­ly consists of two Elements. It is Aire within, which is invisible for its Rarity; and without, a thin-shapt skin of water: and there is all the Bubble. The Aire deciphers our Soule; and the watery skin, our Bo­dy; in this present World. The skin presently breakes: the Aire as pre­sently breakes loose: and there is a [Page 5] present end of the Bubble: and we are as presently delivered up to ano­ther World.

O Lord, open thou my Lips, and Psa. 51. 15. my mouth shall shew forth thy praise: And whatsoever others beleeve, or do, or teach to be done and believed; I will not recede from thy known Truth. Even the Sea-Monsters (or, Lam. 4. 3. Sea-Calves driven with every Surge of the Sea) draw out the Breast: The Vulgar; Sed & Lamiae nudave­runt Edit. vulg. mammam, But even the Witches (or, Fairy-Ladies and ranting Night-Dancers) have laid the breast forth naked: The Septuagint, [...], Sept. Sym. the Dragons: Symmachus, [...], the Sirens: they give suck to their young-ones. But they shall not suckle me.

CHAP. III.

ONce more here let me sympho­nize with the Spirit of David. I said, saith he, and I say with him; Psal. 39 1. I will take heed to my waies, that I sin not with my Tongue. I will take heed to my waies, that I speake not, (write not,) prompted by Prejudice, [Page 6] Custome, or Carnall Affection.

But I may not shut the Book after the reading of this Text, as the good old Saint in the Lives of the Vitae Pa­trum. Idem exem­plum habe­tur apud Theodore­tum in Hi­stor. Tripart lib. 8. cap. 1. Et adduci­tur à M. Marulo l. 4. cap. 6. Fathers, that having [...] Bible given into his hands, and letting his eye first fall and settle upon these words, returned the Book shut, and cried, Sat est quod didici, I have learned enough for the present, I will first▪ endeavour to digest this divine Lesson.

Holy Scripture must lye open, and enthroned, when holy matters are in debating; according to the sober Custome of ancient Councils: The Word of God being the most authen­ticall High-Place, from whence, in our wants, and at pleasure, we may looke into Heaven, and into the first and Originall will of God: and God having dealt otherwise with us, than Adrian the Empe­rour Niceph. Eccl. His [...]. lib. 3. c. 24. with the rebellious Jewes; who banished them from their own Country, and commanded that they should not look back▪ upon it from an high Place.

The Scripture, as the Logicia [...]s teach de Terminis Co [...]notativi [...] ▪ sig­nifies [Page 7] in recto all that which is mate­riall in it, being the things them­selves, or the faire and fragrant Posie of the Truths revealed: and in obli­quo signifies that which is formall in it, being the manner of Proposition, or the Tradition of these Truths by Writing. Wherefore, although Scripture-Truths be divine Truths, and made legible; yet if they be not rightly preached, interpreted, proposed, received, they will not be true to us, and written in our Hearts.

The Divines question, How light could be created by it selfe, according to the narration of Scripture: Be­cause there seemes then to have been Accidens (cujus esse est inesse) sine subjecto, An Accident (the radi­call being wherof is to be in a Subject) without a Subject: and the narration likewise pretends, as if Colour could otherwise be than in a Thing or Substance coloured. But Aquinas makes it luce lucidius, clearer than D. Tho. part. 1. quaest. 7 [...] ▪ art. 1. ad [...]. the light. Primâ die facta est natura lucis in aliquo subjecto: sed quarto die dicuntur facta Luminaria; non qui [...] [...]orum substantia sit de novo pro­ducta, [Page 8] sed quia sunt aliquo modo for­mata quo priùs non erant. The nature of Light was made in some Subject, even upon the first day: but upon the fourth day the Luminaries or great Lights are said to be made; not because their Substance was now newly pro­duced, but because they were formed in some manner, in the which they were not formerly formed. My Application is. The Light of the first day, in a Spirituall sense, is the Word of God, as comming from God to his Church: and the great Lights of the fourth day, are the same Word rightly pro­posed by the Church, and received into fit and gracious Subjects. More of this afterwards.

CHAP. IV.

TO presse nearer. The Mathe­maticall Axiom, Suprēum infimi tangit infimum supremi, The highest part of the lower thing touches the lowest part of the higher thing; in­sinuates a Concatenation of Things, and of Causes. And that this Conca­tenation may be securely supported in every linke: God the first cause [Page 9] (though most united in Himselfe) is in all second Causes, and in all created things, per Essentiam, per Praesentiam, per Potentiam; by his Essence, by his Presence, by his Power. With re­flexion upon which Power, it is re­vealed of him; Attingit à fine [...]que ad finem fortiter, He touches from one end of the Creatures to the other, strongly.

And he doth not uphold or touch his highest and lowest Creatures, as deserting or over-passing the rest couched betwixt them. For, De extremo ad extremum non est transi­tus nisi per media: The ordinary transition (yea, of the Creator attem­perating himselfe to the Creature) from one extreme to the other, is by middle things: as the Passage ab Initiativo puncto ad punctum Termi­nativum, from the Initiative to the Terminative Point, is by the Line, being the Flux of the first Point. Therefore, as the bloud continually resorts to the Heart in a Circle, from all parts of the body: So the Con­servation or continued Creation and being of all things is from him, from whom is their first being and Crea­tion.

[...] [Page 9] [...] [Page 10] Hence we pronounce ex Cathe­dra, from the Chaire in the Schoole of Divinity: Providentia, vel infima tangit: Divine Providence toucheth all things, and even the last, least, and lowest of them. And again, Praedesti­natio est pars nobilissima Providentiae, Predestination is the most noble part of Divine Providence. And hence, it being a question amongst Schoole-Divines, Scholastici in tertiam partem D. Thomae. Utrùm visibilis detur Ef­fectus divinae Praedestinationis in In­fantibus baptizatis; Whether or no there be any visible effect of divine Predestination in baptized Infants: The common answer is affirmative, concerning Infants dying after Bap­tisme, and before they have actually transgressed.

But the weake and fallible Au­thority of Schoole-Divines in it selfe, is not my [...], or the Touch­stone wherewith I touch and try questioned Mettals. Man did eate Angels food: The Vulgar: Panem Psa. 78 25. Interp. vul­gat. Text. Hebr. Angelorum manducavit homo, Man hath eaten the Bread of Angels. The Originall word rendred Angels, is Abbirim, of the strong: Angels being so called, because they are of super­excellent [Page 11] strength.

I have read in Materia de Angelis: One Angel teacheth another Angel; or, a Superiour Angel, having recei­ved in his Creation, more universall Species, teacheth an inferiour Angel, by willing only, that he should know his mind; ( quae volitio adimit im­pedimentum Secreti, & movet Deum ad imprimendam speciem talis Objecti alteri Angelo:) But it fals otherwise, in the Messenger, or Angel of the Lord of Hosts, designed by Malachi; Mal. 2. 7. who teaches men by administring to them the Bread of the strong.

The Angel of the Church, as pro­posing this Proposition-bread, or, these [...], Leaves of bread set in Sept. sight, being the bread of the strong; hath strongly taught and maintained in the face of all Ages, the baptizing of Infants: And whosoever hath obstinately set his face against it, hath been alwaies esteemed respectively [...], heteroge­neous and heterodox; by the said An­gel or Angels. And to the Judge­ment of these Angels in their Inter­pretations of Scripture, being the Will and Testament of the Lord of [Page 12] Hosts▪ from whom they come as Delegates and Embassadours; I shall strongly stand; and seek the Law at their month.

CHAP. V.

LEt all Christian Fathers and Mothers take their little Chil­dren into their Armes; and having first kissed them, let them with a placid eye looke upon them, and meditate over them. If they be not plane [...], plainly void and empti­ed of all naturall Affection; they will most plainly discover, that there are two things excellently conspicuous in Babes: which are, Innocency, and Impotency. By the first, they are altogether incapable of hurting others: by the second, as insufficient for helping themselves.

In consideration of the first: It seldome fals out, even in the most bloudy wars, as Vegetius observes, Veget. de re militari, lib. 3. that old men, old women, young maids, and little Children are not spared. And in examination of the second; St Austin piously exhorts: St Aug. ad Hilar. ep. 89 Tanto magis pro Infantibus loqui de­bemus, [Page 13] quanto minùs ipsi pro se loqui possunt. We ought so much the more to speake for Infants, how much the lesse they be able to speake for them­selves.

Poore Things; they say nothing: But they are Dove-eyed, as the pret­ty one in the Canticles: and they Cant. 1. 15. beg aloud, and plead prettily for themselves, with the dumbe and si­lent Oratory of their sweet and in­nocent looks; being apt emissions and scintillations of their inward prettinesse. Wo may compare them to a small kind of Lights or Lamps, composed of sweet matter, which are both shining and odoriferous. Certainely, God is graciously propi­tious to them in their kind, and in every kind agreeable to them; to­wards whom he hath imprinted in us, and even in barbarous People, a most merciful inclination of Nature; seconded with a viscerall commise­ration of all their sufferings, above all ordinary course.

I am too narrow. God hath en­forced the very Tumult and outrage of the Sea, to acknowledge the bap­tized Infant: It being storied by [Page 14] Osorius concerning Albuquerqnez, Osor. de Rebus gestis Emmanue­ [...]is, Portu­galliae Regis, lib. 1. Admirall of the Portugall Fleet for the Conquest of the East Indies; that, being surprized by a most horri­ble Tempest, which gave sudden occasion to a woman in the same ship with him, to be delivered of a tender Babe, presently baptized by reason of the present danger; he fell upon his knees presently, presently took the new-borne, now-borne, twice-borne Child in his hands, and held him towards Heaven, whilest he sacrificed his Prayer to God in this humble manner: Averte, Do­mine, facie [...]uam à peccatis meis, &c. Lord turne away the Face of thy Ju­stice from my sins, and from the sins of the People with me: And though we have all deserved thine Anger yet in thy Child Jesus, spare us, by sparing this innocent Babe with us, that never sinned against thee, and is now recei­ved by thine Ordinance into thy Fa­vour. Which Prayer being ended the Tempest ended, and the Sea became as harmelesse as the Child, and as calme as the water wherein the pretty Babe was baptized.

We grown Persons are like Lam­preys: [Page 15] we have all some strong string or other of poysonous actuall [...]ination in us, but Babes have not: ( [...] therefore, Men are exhorted, [...], wax ye, or be ye 1 Cor. 14. 20. children in evill, or malice:) especi­ally, baptized Babes, translated to a new, and heavenly condition; and in whom is presented a most pleasant part of Musicke, even that wherein the falling from a short Discord to a sweet Concord, causeth more than ordinary sweetnesse.

CHAP. VI.

THe holy Doctrine of Infant-Baptisme, hath been soyl'd much, and polluted. How may it be reduced and recall'd to its Native Purity? The Naturalists have found Albertus lib. de Gem­mis. by curious Inquisition▪ That if a Pearle which is foule, be swallowed into the wombe of a Dove, and re­maine there some while, the Dove will give it againe most pure and Or [...]ut. So every Doctrine must be tryed and examined in the wombe of the Scripture-Dove the Holy Ghost, which wombe is the Word of [Page 16] God, proposed and interpreted by the Church of God: And if the Do­ctrine be Pearle-proofe, the Holy Ghost will quickly return it as such, and free it from spots, clouds, defor­mity.

For the Church may well be sub­servient to the Scripture, and the Scripture auxiliary to the Church, in diverso Genere Causae, puta Ex­emplaris, & instrumentalitèr effecti­vae: Neither do the Logicians elimi­nate such Circles, or Circulations of Arguments; nor do such make us giddy.

Prophetae, saith St Hierom, appel­labantur St Hieron: ep. ad Pau­linum, de sacra Scrip­tura. videntes: quia videbant cum quem caeteri non videbant: The Prophets were called Se [...]rs: because they saw (Dono Prophetiae, by the gift of Prophecy, which gave them to foresee, and understandingly to declare their foresight; their Pre­diction including Prevision, quia praedicebant ex Praevisione; in the which, they differed from the Si­byls, who neither foresaw the things they Prophesied, nor perfect­ly understood their own Declarati­ons,) Christ, whom the common [Page 17] Herd saw not. The Prophets and Apostles in their Holy Writings, and the Church interpreting them, dis­cover Supernaturall Truths to us, which we know not by other meanes: and their Testimonies are irresistible.

The Chymists and Alchumists Chymistae. Alchymistae. are agreed, that the most tried way of effecting the strange Transmuta­tions of bodies, in Oyles, Plants, Minerals, is to endeavour, and urge pressingly by all means the reducing of them to their old Nothing. The Scripture-Texts for Infant-Baptism, are so substantiall, and solid, that, rather than they shall prove nothing for it, they take strange and many shapes, every shape shaping a proofe.

It is a secret of secrets in Sounds: That the whole Sound is not in the whole Aire only, but also in every minute Part of the Aire; otherwise, one and the same Sound could not beat upon many eares, and come with all the differences of it in such diversities of convenient Distance and Place. True it is of the Apostles: Their line is gone out thorough all the [Page 18] Earth, and their words to the end of Psal. 19. 4. the World▪ as the Hebrew: or, as the Text. Hebr. Sept. Lectio Vulgat. Septuagint, [...], sensed by the Vulgar, In omnem terram exivit so­nus corum, their sound is gone forth into all the earth; and strictly fol­lowed by St Paul, and the Arabicks: Rom. 10. 18. Arab. Alex. Arab. Anti­och. Interpretes Syr. or as both the Syriack Interpreters, Evangelium, vel Annuciatio corum, Their Gospell or Annunciation is gone forth: All these running after the Septuagint, in the neere Path of the Sense; not with the Hebrew, in the Road of the Letter.

May the Evangelicall sound of the Apostles in this matter, reach even to the end of the World, and come wholly to every mans and womans eares thorough all the earth.

The Great Wheele in the Worke, after which, and impelled by which, all others move; and the turning of which▪ as the first movable, shall be my care; is, to prove, that the words of Christ, Except a man be Joh. 3. 5. borne of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God; preach Baptism.

CHAP. VII.

SOme of the blockish and more earthy kind, seeme to be scrupled and scandalized, that I have some­times reformed a Text in the Eng­lish Translation of the Bible, by re­triving it in the Original. Which notwithstanding, ought to be faith­fully done by a faithfull Teacher, for many Reasons: one whereof, I shall here indigitate. Because the English Translation is now and then so large, profuse, redundant, and running over, and so spreading it selfe beyond the modest limits of the Original, that it opens a way and window for an Adversary of Truth, which the Originall shutteth up and blocketh against him. As here: The English Translation gives, Except a man be borne, &c. And the Adversary swal­lows presently, and concludes in haste; Therefore, if the Text hands forth Baptisme, the baptized Person must be a grown man, as the word (man) commonly imports.

Now can I be a faithfull and equall examiner and Preacher of [Page 20] Gods Word, and conceale the dis­crasie of the Translation and the present Obstruction of Truth: knowing, that the Originall saith on­ly, [...]: and the Vulgar Text. Graec. Edit. vulgat answerably, Nisi quis renatus fuerit, Except one be borne: And that except a Child be not one, he is not excluded from Baptisme by the warrant of this Text, but affixed to it?

Here the senselesse Censurer ig­norantly retorts upon me, that I speake my selfe wiser than all the English Interpreters of the Bible, and set them before my Tribunall; and above all this, that I correct the Word of God: when I am indeed Gods Advocate, and set my selfe be­fore the Tribunall of all the learned Knowers of the Originall, to whom I humbly appeale as Judges; and when I only vindicate Gods known Word from grosse errour and misin­terpretation, and protest against it, lest I should partake of it, according to the Rule in the Canon Law, Error Gratian. D 80. C. er­ror cui non. cui non resistitur approbatur, We ap­prove the Errour which we do not re­sist.

The Black within the White, is: [Page 21] These blockish and dull-soul'd Cen­surers know no other Language than Mam-English, or, their mother Tongue: and they would faine have the whole worke of sounding Scri­pture by the Line and Plummet, to move altogether and run within their own small Sphere and Circle; and so they would shoulder it with the tallest Divines, because they have been Abecedarii, and can, after much hammering, and stammering, and many a smarting Lash, put the Let­ters together, and cast a spell.

I shall never be so forward and hardy as the late English Rabbi Dr Featly, who delivers for positive, Dr Featly in his Dip­per dipt, not far from the beginning. and avouches plainly, That no Tran­slation is authenticall, or, the Word of God. But I shall touch every suspi­cious Text of a Translation, with the Lydius Lapis of the Originall: And if I make a false step, let the Learned tread upon me and crush me.

I answer therefore to the shallow▪ thoughted Censurers, in St Gregory's St Greg. Homil. 7. in Ezech. D. Tho. 2. 2▪ q. 43. art. 7. Words alleaged by the Angelicall Doctor: Si de Veritate scandalum s [...]mitur, utiliùs nasci permittitur scandalum quàm Verit as relinquatur: [Page 22] If a Scandall be taken from Truth, the Birth of a Scandall is more profi­tably permitted than Truth may be relinquished: The Scandall is passi­vum non activum, passive not active; non datum sed acceptum, not given but taken.

CHAP. VIII.

VVHereas Christ the Son of the living God, by his Hu­manation, his Passion, and his Death, is the Universall Cause of our ever­lasting Life and Salvation: And whereas Universall Strength or Vir­tue even in these naturall Things, is not bowed to us, and applied to par­ticular effects, but by particular cau­ses: it was convenient and reasona­ble, that some Remedies should be prescribed and adhibited to us in a ruinous Condition, that should, as particular causes, convey and confer to us the Virtue of the Cause which is Universall. These excellent Reme­dies are the Sacraments.

And as the second Causes and In­struments of the first; and particular [Page 23] Causes attend the worke of the Uni­versall Cause: So these our Sacra­ments are the means and Instruments of Christ, for the effecting of his di­vine and saving Worke upon us. And because there are always required to the worke of the principall Cause, pro­portionable Instruments; it was con­gruous, that these our Sacraments should be presented to us under pra­cticall and visible Signes, and efficaci­ous Words w ^ch are audible: the Uni­versall Cause of our Salvation, being the Word of God Incarnate, and made sensible by assuming humane Nature, & elevating it in the Person of Christ.

And because there is no salvation without Grace, as being previous and singularly proportionable to Glo­ry; it is likewise conformable to right Reason and Measure, that Sa­craments should be the divine In­struments of Grace in us; not as in­troducing the last effect of Grace by their virtue; but after the manner as the Sun and a man beget a man, w ^ch notwithstanding touch not in their operation, the Essence of the Intelle­ctive Soule, because it comes ab ex­tra from without by Creation, and is [Page 24] not educed ex potentia Materiae, from the passive power of the Matter.

And therefore, as the materiall Causes of our production in Genera­tion, are attendant only upon the last disposition of the Matter, and aime precisely at the union of the Soule with the Body: So the Sacraments doe not physically produce Grace it selfe, being a supernaturall and proper gift of God the sole fountaine of Grace; but only touch inclusively, the last disposition to it, pretending to the Union, and moving God to the pro­duction of it in a worthy Receiver.

In relation to which virtus motrix, moving virtue, (moving the Will of God upon his promise,) the Prophet Micah saith, Thou wilt cast all their Mich. 7. 19. sins into the depths of the Sea. Where Arias Montanus notes out of the Rabbins, that it was customary with Benedictt. Arias Mon­tan. in Mich. ex Rabbinis in Misnaroth. the Jewes to throw all things they did execrate and abominate, into the Lake Asphaltites, called Mare Mor­tuum, the dead or salt Sea. And con­formably, the Indians who had expre­ssed in them some footsteps of Juda­isme, being now lightly impressed, expresse their sins in writing, or by [Page 25] some other Symboll; which they cast into a River, that it may be carried into the Sea, out of all sight and me­mory; as Acosta hath deliver'd to Acosta li. 5. de novo Or­be, cap 25. memory, from his owne sight. But our Prophet alludes properly to the drowning of Pharaoh in the Red Sea; which was a type of Baptisme, made blood-red by the death of Christ; and in the which our Aegyp­tian sins are destroyed. Whence The­odoret Theod. & Rupert. in hunc locum. and Rupertus doe here by the depths of the Sea, allegorically under­stand Baptisme.

And Saint Gregory drawes out in a long-spun thread, this efficacy of Baptisme from the drowning of the Aegyptians: and inferres, Qui ergò dicit peccata in Baptismate funditùs Gregor. Magnus in lib epist. ep. 39. ad The­octistam Patriciam. non dimitti, dicat in Mari rubro Aegyptios non veracitèr mortuos: He therefore, that sayes our sinnes are not forgiven in Baptisme, may as truly say, that the Aegyptians were not drowned in the Red Sea: and if he will give this, he must grant the other. And he fortifies himselfe with a rea­son of Proofe: Quia nimirum plus valet in absolutione nostrâ veritas, quùm umbra veritatis: Because the [Page 26] Truth is of more validity in our deli­verance and absolution, than the sha­dow of the Truth.

The Nicen Creed is, after Scripture, the warrant of these writers: [...]; Symb. Nicen. I beleeve one Baptisme for the remis­sion of sins.

CHAP. IX.

THe Signes also, and Matter of the Sacraments, are by divine Institution, most divinely and con­veniently instituted. Behold this di­vine conveniency in Baptisme, wherein we are spiritually regenera­ted w ^ch analogy to material generation.

For: Whereas materiall Genera­tion is Motus vel mutatio de non-esse ad [...]sse, A Motion or mutation from not-Being to Being; and Man in his first▪ Being, is, for the transfusion of Originall sin, debarred of his first Birthright, the prime infusion of spi­rituall Life; from the which he doth afterwards analogically recede more and more, as he is more and more implicated in the bonds and sins of Death: it was orderly, that unto Bap­tisme, which is the Laver of spirituall Regeneration, there should be ascer­tain'd [Page 27] on the part of the Sacrament, and annexed the spirituall virtue of washing away and removing sin by the infusion of Grace; and of tran­slating by the same Grace, man to a gracious life above Nature.

And because Signum respondere debet significato, the signe must al­waies and signally answer to the thing signified; and the ablution of the outward filth of the body, is effected instrumentally by water: it was consonant, for the practicall signi­fying of the spirituall and inward ablution of sin, that this initiatory Sacrament should be dispensed out­wardly with water, sanctified by the word of God.

And as one thing is once only gene­rated; so is it concordant, that Bap­tisme once rightly conferred, should not be iterated upon the same sub­ject; lest it should wander, deviate, and degenerate from the Nature of Regeneration, as forgetting of what house it came.

It goes without opposition in the schoole of naturall Phylosophy; that a thing is by so much the more Noble, by how much it hath more [Page 28] of inward forme, from which for­mall interest, the Celestiall bodies and pretious Gemms have their No­bility: And the Sacraments are dig­nified by their divine and beautifull Influx, and their formall setting our souls in the grace and peace of God which passeth all understanding.

Aristophanes undertaking the praises of temporall peace, findes not Aristoph. in pacc. a name [...]quall with the praises of it; and he wishes to finde [...], a word or name equalling the capacity of ten thousand Amphors: (the Amphor was a large two-car'd Vessell in Athens:) but what word can suffice to blazon the dignity of our Spirituall and Sacramentall peace with God?

CHAP. X.

A Sacrament, beyond that it is signum rei sacrae, a signe of an holy thing; is in the next conside­ration, and in the review, Visibile signum Doni invisibilis, à Deo insti­tutionem trahens, A visible signe of an invisible Gift, deriving it's insti­tution St Aug. lib. 2. de Doctri­na christia­na, cap. 1. from God.

Signum, as the Bishop of Hippo [Page 29] defines it, est res praeter speciem quam ingerit sensibus, aliud aliquid ex se faciens in cogitationem venire: A signe is a thing, of it selfe causing an other thing to press upon our thoughts, besides the resemblance which it of­fers to our senses.

First then: every Sacrament must be signum sensibile, a sensible signe: And all Sacraments both old and new, are combined in this. For: Although God might and could have ordained some spirituall signe of grace, yet that signe should not have properly been a signe in a Sa­crament, (howsoever some Doctors pull strongly for the contrary,) as I now speake of Sacraments: Be­cause it should not have been signum humanum sed Angelicum, an hu­mane but an Angelicall signe; and should have conformed to subsisting spirits, not to men consisting of souls and bodies: Who require such Sacraments, as are able to congre­gate into a being, and to conserve in a warme being, a visible Church: God attemperating and proportio­ning his Ordinances to us and our mixt condition.

That the Character impressed up­on the soul in Baptism, is a spirituall and invisible signe; I will not doubt: But it hath no shelter here.

Secondly: there are speculative and practicall signes. And the Sacra­ments of the old Law, were not signes meerly theoricall or specula­tive of salvation and Grace; but practicall. Because the promise of a thing is not speculatively-behavi­our'd and manner'd towards the thing promised, but practically; as causing it in some manner. For: he that promiseth is afterwards mo­ved by his promise, to correspond with it by fulfilling it. And thus the promise is Causa moralis Re [...] promis­sae, the morall cause of the thing pro­mised: Every promise having a mo­rall force, actually moving, or apt to move the promiser to performance.

Whereas therefore, all the old Sacraments were certain promises or signes, by the which, God did, as it were, promise in figures, Christ and our Salvation: it is fairly and fruitfully consequent, that they were practicall signes of Grace to be given by Christ: the Figure-Promises, ren­ding [Page 31] to after-performance through him that was to come. And if the old Sacraments were practicall signes; it is a signe, that the new are much more, and more excellently, as grasping a more excellent promise.

Thirdly: the signe here, must represent a sacred and invisible thing, not a thing which is profane or visible. The sacred invisible thing which the Sacraments of the new Law doe signifie, is threefold: 1. Habituall and justifying Grace, which, as present, is demonstrated: 2. The passion of Christ the medi­ator, which is the cause of Grace, and is remembred as being past: 3. Glory and life eternall, which is the effect of Grace, and which, all habituall Grace, quantum est ex se, brings to it's Subject; and which as being hereafter to come, is pre­figur'd.

For the Sacraments signifying Grace, do consequently signifie the beginning and end of the saine grace. And their signification must be con­sider'd with some proportionable re­ference to the light of the divine un­derstanding, and the beams and ir­radiations [Page 32] of it; which brings & binds up uno intuitn, both ends together: Because the institution of a Sacra­ment, is only of God the author of Grace; God alone being able to compound and connex inward grace with an outward signe.

CHAP. XI.

I Wade farther. It is a fundamen­tall rule, Aequè certa sunt ac evi­dentia, quae ex sacris Literis evi­dentèr ac certè deducuntur, atque ea quae in illis expressè & [...], i. e. ad verbum & in terminis, habentur. The things are equally certaine and evident, which are evidently and certainly deduced from sacred Scrip­ture, as the things which are found in Scripture expresly, and word for word. And the same rule is return'd in another dresse: Conclusions are as right as their Principles, if rightly and consequentially concluded.

The first reason of this truth, is fundamentall as the truth is: Ex ve­ro nil nisi verum, of truth comes no­thing but truth, by true deduction. And the second reason is: Because [Page 33] the conclusion is in effect, the prin­ciple; and the truth deduced, is the truth from whence the deduction issues, in other and more declaring terms.

It is true, that of truth, falshood may come per accidens, by chance, and materially; not by formall, right and necessary consequence.

Hence we cry: Principia fidei, vel quae ex eis deducuntur, sunt in Scrip­tura: The principles of faith, or, the truths deduced from them, are in Scripture: And, Omnis divina re­velatio est in scriptura, vel directè, vel per necessariam, & inevitabilem consequentiam: Every revealed truth is in Scripture, either directly, or by necessary and inevitable con­sequence. And hence we throw abroad; he that holds a Doctrine, holds all the consequences of it: Be­cause the Doctrine and the Conse­quences are one identicall truth in different language. The difference betwixt Principles and Conclusions being, according to the Nature of similitudes, like the difference be­twixt the heavenly and earthly bo­dies: The heavenly bodies having [Page 34] their last perfection from their crea­tion, and by their very nature; but the earthly bodies acquiring their due perfection by mutation and mo­tion; because they are generable and corruptible: Or: Like the blessed­nesse of the Creator and the Crea­ture: Whereas soli Deo Beatitudo D. Tho. p. 1. q. 62. art. 4. in corpore. perfecta est naturalis; quia idem est sibi esse & beatum esse; Perfect bles­sednesse is naturall to God alone; because to be and to be blessed is the same thing to him: But the blessed­nesse of the Creature, requires a triall of motion in the way; which is heavenly-true, even of the An­gels.

CHAP. XII.

THE truth which I promise to fasten, and to settle upon pillars, as wisedome doth her House: name­ly, P. o [...]. 9. 1. that the words, Except one be borne, &c. engage for Baptism: I prove in the first onset, from the words of the Text it selfe: thus: Here within these words, is con­tained all that is essentially necessary to Baptism; all other things exclu­ded: [Page 35] And this is the onely-safe way to know and finde when a Text speaks fully and wholly of any thing: This being that full and adequate Correspondence, which Logick ex­acts betwixt an Essence and the thing essentiated; as also betwixt the thing defined and the Definition: that the one may fitly, fully and en­tirely pertain to the other, and be convertible with it, and measurable by it.

After this manner, Baptism is responsible to the Text, and the Text to Baptism. For: Baptism is our birth of water and of the spirit, opening unto us the Kingdome of God; And, our birth of water and of the Spirit, opening unto us the Kingdome of God, is Baptism: And: This our birth of water and of the Spirit, opening unto us the King­dome of God, is nothing else but Bap­tism; And, Baptism is nothing else, than this our birth of water and of the Spirit, opening unto us the Kingdome of God.

If the Son of the Cooper shall set in his hoope, another Text, which takes up something of this, [Page 36] and conjoines it with some other thing dissentaneous from Baptism, (wherein the holy Ghost denotes a particular and secret concordance of Divine things and Ordinances,) that he may vie it with this our Text: the Logicall Rule will un­hoop him, de dissimilibus non est idem Judicium, Of things unlike, wee may not passe the same judgment.

And even according to Arith­meticall Proportion; the meer addi­tion of a single Unity, detracts from the samenesse, yea and creates a specifical difference betwixt numbers: And, Numerus est in numeratis, A number, that it may be reall and not notionall onely, must be subjected in the things numbred, being there­fore also accordingly differenced.

But when things of a different number, differ also in Nature; they are made by more differences, more different. And in things Divine, as in naturall things, partiall Na­tures are communicable to severall things. The Text, Wash ye, make Isa. 1. 16. you cleane; for which, the Vulgar offers, Lavamini, & mundi estote, Interp. vulgat. be ye washed, and cleane; though it [Page 37] forespeak for Baptism, and was ac­cepted under such a notion in the Primitive Church; yet because the precept is unrestrained, undetermi­ned, and not bounded with a dif­ference, and therefore not definitive; it bound not Christians with a strict bond; and Heathens finding it lax and wide, had seemingly, but unjustly brought it to their lustrations, as they are justly taxed by St Justin. Justin Mar. tyr, Apolog. primâ & in Paraenesi ad Graecos & Gentiles.

CHAP. XIII.

THat in this our Text is all es­sentially necessary to Baptism, is farther apparent: Because here is signum externum & sensibile, the externall and sensible signe, being water; and the concurrence of it, with the spirit: Here is operatio vel [...] sancti spiritus interna & spiritualis, the inward and spiritu­all operation and energy of the holy spirit (that workes alwaies inward­ly,) implying [...], an inward worke and Birth: And here is manda­tum Dei saltem implicitum, vel per consequentiam, at the least an impli­cit or consequentiall mandat of God.

For although God be not our Neighbour, and therefore such ob­ligations are not incidentiall upon him: Yet we are all fundamentally obliged, quatenus proximi; as neigh­bours to remove from our Neigh­bours, with the same love where­with we love our selves, and with our uttermost power, the impedi­ments and obstacles lying in their way to the Kingdome of God: And therefore, this divine Declaration being extant and supposed; we are implicitely and consequentially com­manded to execute the Sequell of it.

Moreover: A signe may be na­turale, quod non pendet ex novâ In­stitutions, sed ex naturâ suâ signifi­cat; vel voluntarium, & ex arbitrio instituentis, id est, ad placitum di­vinum vel humanum; Naturall, which doth not depend upon a new Institution, but signifieth of it's own nature; or voluntary, and from the Arbitriment of the Institutor, that is, according to divine or humane appointment: And water here, is of divine and royall Institution, as the Spirit is of Royall and Divine ope­ration, [Page 39] and as the Mandat is Divine and Royall.

Lastly: The signe as it is here assign'd, hath compleat analogy with the thing it signifies; it being most proper to that which is [...], the signe, to signifie: Which it may doe quoad substanti­am, & quoad effectus primarios aut secundarios, respectively to it's sub­stance, and to it's primary or secunda­ry effects; as here the signe doth, principalitèr quoad effectum Ablu­tionis, principally with a finger pointing to it's effect of Abluti­on.

Water washes with its Humidi­ty, being in the first and confuse view of Reason it's prime Quality; and therefore, fitly signifies the Ablu­tion of our sins: With its Frigidity, it mitigates the superfluous excee­dings of heat; and therefore fitly signifies the mitigation of the Fomes Peccat [...], fire-hot and combustible matter of sin, being concupiscence: And as water is diaphanous, it is susceptive of Light; and therefore fitly enters league with Baptism, in quantum est Fidei Sacramentum, as [Page 40] it is the Sacrament of Faith, being the prime habituall and supernatu­rall Light of the Soul. (It must be the Woolf of the evenings, which Jerem. 5. 6. Oppianus likewise advisedly cals [...], a Walker in the darke Oppian li. 1. de Venat. night; that would abridge innocent Hearts and Lambs of the Sacrament of Light.)

And the Sacrament of Baptism, as we finde it here, is a practicall signe, and besides it's signification hath efficiency, as entitling us to the Kingdome of God through his princely Son the Bridegroom of our Soules, and as therefore adorning us with the wedding Garment of grace the pledge of Glory; (and for this reason is aptly called a Seale, being a practicall signe as not only representing the Image, but also im­pressing it in the wax;) by the power of the Principle cause or A­gent, that comes regalitèr, legalitèr, & authoritativè, regally, legally, and authoritatively with an Imprima­tur, Let there be an impression of the Seale in the Soul.

CHAP. XIV

I Confirme it, first. That which is essentially, with respect to the whole Essence, agreable to Baptism, (or any other thing,) is not com­mon to many in the same literall construction, or communicable to a­ny thing of a different kind: lest the whole Essence of Things should be confounded.

Verily: The Genus in a Defini­tion, is essentiall to the thing defined, and communicable to many things of a different kind: But it is not es­sentiall to the thing defined, (or to other things,) with respect to the whole Essence, but only as a Logicall part. Neither are teares in Repen­tance Essentiall to Contrition, (which is an Act of Displicence in the heart;) that they should Essentially pertaine to the meanes of Salvation. But water is essentially necessary to ordi­nary Baptism; though in extraordi­nary cases, involving Extremum pe­riculum & horam Mortis, extreame danger and the houre of, death the de­fect of it may be supplied.

And the Declaration here, as it is delivered in high terms, so is it Essentiall with respect to the whole Essence of ordinary Baptism. Which directed the Chair-divine of Aquine to speak high: Si aliqui nunc sancti­ficarentur D. Tha. part. 3. quaest. 68. art. 1. ad. 3. in Utero, necesse esset eos baptizari, ut per susceptionem Cha­racteris, altis membris Christi con­formarentur: If any should be now sanctified in the womb, (as Jeremy and John the Baptist,) and clean'd from Originall sin, they should of ne­cessity be Baptized, that by the sus­ception of the Character they might be conformed to the other members of Christ: this indelible Character ha­ving three Offices, aptos nos facere ad culium divinum, configurare Chri­sto ejúsque Sanctis, & distinguere ab altis; to apt the subject, in some measure, for Divine Worship; to con­figure us to Christ and his Saints, (to Christ primarily and secundari­ly to his Saints under a new consi­deration;) and to distinguish the Baptized from the unbaptized, even in Hell it selfe.

We are configur'd to Christ, who Heb. 1. 3. is the brightnesse or effulgency of his [Page 43] Fathers Glory, and the figure of his substance, as the vulgar; or, as the Greek Text, [...], Edit. vulgat Text. Graec. [...] and the Character of his subsistence; or, and the expresse Image of his Person, as the English. The subject of the Character, is the Soul secunaùm partem Intellectivam, according to the Intellective part; in the which part Faith is.

And in Baptism, that which is Sacramentum tamùm, the Sacra­ment only, is the corporeall and ex­teriour Ablution, effected under the prescribed forme of words: That which is Res tantùm, the Thing only, is the Justification of the Person Baptized: And that which is Res & Sacramentum, the Thing and the Sacrament, is the Character of Bap­tism.

And as the fit use of the prescri­bed words, though necessary to or­dinary Baptism, (which therefore may not be administred by one that is dumb,) is included here in the right use of the water tending to spirituall Birth; so the impression of the Character, though likewise necessary, is here included in the [Page 44] worke of the Spirit: Compleat Birth in Baptism, supposing the perfor­mance of all works necessary to such Birth.

And all this holds faire with rea­son: it belonging to young Sheep and initiated Servants and Soldiers, to be signed with a Character; and Christ being our good Shepheard, Master▪ Captaine; who therefore, was not himselfe signed with a cre­ated Character; And therefore also, neither Circumcision, nor any Sa­crament of the old Law, did im­print a Character in the Soule.

CHAP. XV.

I Confirm it, secondly. This Text agrees not with any Sacred Thing so evenly as with Baptism. Let any man▪ go, and make a neer search, percurrendo per singula, examining the singulars in every kinde. Let any man travell per enumerationem partium, through the numbring of all the choice parts of Divine Wor­ship, or of Gods Word: and in his return, honestly give up his Ver­dict.

The child of the Hoop, answers out of the Tub; That by born of water, is meant born of the word; because the word is in Scripture oftentimes compar'd with water: and that the word meant, demeanes it selfe as an Instrumentall cause, the Spirit as an Efficient.

I answer: This is the Hocus Pocus of desperate Ignorance, and a fugitive course. For: It is a brea­king of all hoopes and bonds, and a running hastily without cause, from the literall or historicall Sense to a figure; in open defiance of the Rule, Minimè recurrendum est ad figuras, ubinulla cogit Necessitas aut Absur­ditas: We must not run back to fi­gures, where we are not compelled by Necessity or Absurdity: Yea even against a fundamentall Axiom set in Divinity, as a Star in the Firma­ment, for our guidance in the right understanding of Scripture: Which Axiom is precedent to the Rule: The literall sense, as the most ob­vious, and sweetly dropping from the native simplicity and propriety of words, as from a moderate Lim­beck; if it be Usher to no evident [Page 46] absurdity, is alwaies the meaning of the Holy Ghost.

And if it were not: The Readers of Scripture would be Vagabonds, and never know where to sit down. And if, in every propulsion of our corrupt wils, we might affix new senses; we might also commonly deprave the most clear and most flourishing places of Scripture, and unbottom them from their proper hold, root, and inclination.

The Herbe called Morsus Dia­boli, Devils-bit, the God of Nature hath so deeply rooted, that it is not pulled up entire: From the root of which, grew the name, and fable, that the Devill bites off the root, envying to us the use of it, as condu­cing so much to our health. When we violently pluck Scriptures from their native root and letter, with which they innocently bear to­wards us: the Devill bites in ear­nest, and ultra fabulā, beyond a fable.

And therefore, we prove matters of Faith, and matters in controversy, only from the free-offering of the literall sense. And hence the Max­ime: Theologia Symbolica vel Al­legorica [Page 47] non est argumentativa: Sym­bolicall or Allegoricall Divinity is not reducible to Argument. For as the Spirituall sense, super literalem fundatur, & cum supponit, accor­ding D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. art▪ 10. in corp. to the determination of Aqui­nas; is founded upon the literall sense, and supposeth it: So it sup­poseth also, that the Sense of the foundation is the first, and most ge­nuine Sense; as being the first con­siderable, and only root and prop of the rest. And the same Aquinas: Seasus literalis est, quem Auctor in­tendit: Idem ibid. The Author of Scripture, intends the literall sense. And againe: treating of the literall sense he ad­deth: Idem ibid. ad primum. ex quo solo potest trahi argumē ­tum, non autem ex his, quae secundùm allegor [...]am dicuntur, ut dicit Au­gustinus: Out of which only, we may draw an affirmative argument, but not from the things spoken according to Allegory, as St Austin saith.

Vincentius the Donatist had in a prodigall humour attempted to prove from a dark and mysticall St Aug. ep. 4 [...]. contra▪ Vincentium Donatistam. place in the Canticles, that the Church of God was fled into Afri­ca: But St Austin betaking himselfe [Page 46] [...] [Page 47] [...] [Page 48] to the royall Fort here, put him to flight with a Sarcasme, ipsúmque vincebat Vincentium, and conquer'd him that had his name from conque­ring; with a Negative Argument.

CHAP. XVI.

THE Amplificator, thinking to hoop us up, amplifies the com­parison, by describing in the re­bound, how the Word agrees and contracts with water: As that 1: Water is of a purifying nature, and so is the Word: 2: Water is weak of it selfe, except it be compoun­ded, and made comfortable with comfortable Ingredients; and so the word is a dead letter; and the com­fortable Spirit and Life of the Word, is the true sense thereof: 3: Wa­ter hath a cooling and refreshing quality; and so the Word.

I answer: All this is true: and all superlatively comprehended in Baptism. As 1: Baptism is of a most purifying nature: 2: Except the water in Baptism act with the spirit, it is most weak, and brings cold comfort: (But an argument raised from water here, taken for the word; in a word, is as weak [Page 49] as water:) 3: Baptism is indued with a most cooling and refreshing quality.

Had the chiefe Properties of wa­ter, closed with the word, and not with Baptism; and been proper to the word quarto modo, proper to the word and only to the word: the Adversary, and the two proper Pages of his black Guard, had made a fairer appearance with their Pa­geantry.

Thus did the Devils Oracles de­liver many sound truths, the better, under such palliations to disseminate & publish their most unsound errors. Thus doth a stinke offend us more, when concomitant with some weake perfume which it hath pro vehiculo, than if it singly sets upon us; the perfume procuring for the stink, easier admittance into our sense: the stinking Perfumer that smels of Italy, knows it practi­cally: and stinking Perfumers are more offensive. Thus poysons are most dangerous and irremediable, when joyned in commission with a cordiall that is not able to resist them: It serving to conduct them [Page 50] to the heart, and being unable to vanquish their malignity.

This is [...], to leade Aristoph. in Avibus. Sui­das in voce [...]. silly women captive by the admixtion of truth with falshood, as the old Fowlers deceiv'd Pigeons by shew­ing an exoculated Pigeon leaping and dancing in a net. And these im­pious waies of enervating and cut­ting the sinews of Scripture, may soone imbroyle the whole frame of it, and overturn all. Thus did the Tyrant Mezentius in Virgil, binde the quick and the dead together, and then, throw them into a den; leaving the living still imbracing the dead, untill death imbraced the li­ving, and made the conjunction homogeneall.

Excellently Tertullian of Carthage: Tert. lib. de Praescriptio­nibus adver­sus Haereti­cos. Tantum Veritati obstrepit adulter Sensus, quantum & Corruptor Sty­lus, An adulterating Sense is as obstreperous to Truth, as a corrup­ting style: a false Sense of a true and Divine Text, being as mischie­vous, [Page 51] and doing the same work as a profane and ascititious Text. And vel caeco apparet, Violentam hanc, & quasi sidiculis extortam esse explica­tionem; the blinde beggar may see this figurative explication, or con­fession of the Text, to be violent, and, as it were, extorted with the Rack.

CHAP. XVII.

I Prove secondly, that the Text proclaimes Baptism: By answe­ring the Arguments marching up in Batalia against this Truth. The first is. The new Birth is not attri­buted in Scripture to Baptism.

I answer: This proposition is Antichristian, and most odiously false; as having the whole toad in it, guts and all. Baptism is named in scripture, Lovacrum Regenerati­onis, the Laver of Regeneration: of which afterwards. I will here, on­ly set in the middle, a Text of the Apostolicall Epistle to the Colossi­ans: Colos. 2. 12. Buried with him in Baptism, wherein also you are risen with him, through the Faith of the operation of [Page 52] God. Buried and risen in Spiritu­alibus, in Spirituall things; is no­thing else but born againe. In the which Buriall and Resurrection, Corruptio unius est Generatio alterius, The corruption of the old man is the Generation of the new; and of the Sub­jects of sin, we are made the Adop­ted Children of God.

And the Baptism here exhibited, must be Baptismus Fluminis, the Baptism of the Flood, or water-Bap­tism, which was commonly given with Immersion, to represent the Sepulture of Christ; answerably to this Text: And therefore, the Text runs, Buried with him. And in Sacred Sincerity, (which in our dealing of sacred things, ought to deale most sincerely,) the Greek word [...], Baptism. properly signifieth Immersion: though in rigore loquendo, Ablution is of the Fssence of our Baptism; but the manner of Ablution, is accidentary: because the Intention of the Law-gi­ver, with respect to the thing signi­fied, is in the substance, ut ablua­mur, that we be washed.

And in this Baptism, (whatsoe­ver [Page 53] the Adversary muttereth, and champeth betwixt his teeth,) we are properly Baptized into Christs Death and sufferings: Because the virtue of this Baptism, is derived from his Death; by the which we dy to sin, and live to God. And what is there in the essentiall Consti­tution of the new Birth of a reaso­nable Creature; that is, in the con­stitution of a Child by Adoption; which is not reasonably discovered in a Baptized Infant; etiamsi passivè se gerat?

Adoption is by habituall Grace; which the Infant may receive by Infusion: though he cannot cry, Abba, Father; as wanting actuall Gal. 4. 6. Faith. Adoption differs from Na­turall filiation in this Essentially, that Naturall filiation is founded in com­municatione naturae viventis, in the communication of the Nature of a living Person, (Christ being called Mat. 16. 16. the Son of the living God, quia vi­ventium est generare sibi simile in natura, because it is the part of li­ving things to beget their like in Na­ture:) Vide Concil. Francosor­diense, circ [...] finem. But Adoption is the Assump­tion of an extraneous Person, into the [Page 54] place of a Son: So may God assume a Child, in his free goodnesse. A­doptare, est quasi optare ut sit quod per naturam non est: To Adopt, is in a manner to wish, that he were a Son by Nature who is not: So God may joyne Children closely to him, as his Children: the wish in the Notation of the Name, failing here; because it failes of Divine Perfecti­on. Adoptio fit per Filium natura­l [...]m, ubi naturalis Filius est: Adop­tion is made through the naturall Son, in whom the Right and Heir­ship stands; where there is one; who consentingly yeelds up something of his Right: And Chil­dren may be Adopted through Christ the Naturall Son; and be made partakers of his merits by the Sacrament of Baptism; The Sa­craments being the Conduit-pipes, conveying the Grace of God, and Merits of Christ to us.

The Eagle of the Thomists ac­cords: D. Tho. p. 3 q. 62. art: [...]n sine Corporis. Unde manifestum est, quòd Sacramenta Ecclesiae specialiter ha­bent virtutem ex Passione Christi, cujus Virtus quodammodò nobis co­pulatur per susceptionem Sacramen­torum. [Page 55] In cujus signum de latere Christi pendentis in Cruce, fluxerunt Aqua & Sanguis, quorum unum pertinet ad Baptismum, aliud ad Eucharistiam, quae sunt potissima Sacramenta. Whence it is manifest that the Sacraments of the Church, specially have virtue from the passion of Christ, the virtue whereof is in some manner coupled with us by the susception of the Sacraments. In signe of which, out of the side of Christ hanging on the Crosse, flowed Water and Blood, one whereof pertaineth to Baptism, the other to the Eucharist, being the Chiefe Sacraments. He brings up the reare in the same Ar­ticle, Idem ibid. ad tertium. with: Justificatio attribuitur Resurrectioni ratione termini ad quem, qui est novitas v [...]tae per gra­tiam: Attribuitur tamen passioni ra­tione termini à quo, scil [...]cet quantum ad d [...]mission [...]m Culpae: Justification is attributed to the Resurrection of Christ, as to that to which the moti­on tends, which is newnesse of Life by Grace: Yet is it attributed to the Passion of Christ, as that from which the motion arises, Videl. with regard to the remission of the fault.

And therefore, because in the Eucharist also, there is a Represen­tation of Christs Death, by the which we are made alive, and rise with Christ; the Signes there, are called by the Fathers of the first Nicen Councill, [...], Concilium Nic [...]num primum. the Symbols of the Resurrection.

CHAP. XVIII.

THE sacred words: You are risen with him, through the Faith of the operation of God: re­inforce upon our Thoughts, that divine Faith is infused by God, the Supreame Divine Power, to whom nothing is impossible, which involves not repugnantiam in termi­nis, a repugnancy in the Terms.

And in pious Truth: The Agent of infinite Power, doth not of ne­cessity require to his Action or Work, Matter or Instrument: as it appeares in Creation, which is one of the proper and incommuni­cable Actions of God. Therefore, neither doth he require any disposi­tion or Preparation in the Subject or any kind of instrumentall concurrence.

Wherefore God may strangely ope­rate Faith in children: although we have no comprehensive knowledge of such operation: God's Spirituall ope­rations in us, operated by his Crea­tive or like Virtue; being rather known to us by their Effects, than by their Manner of Infusion.

We own a Doctrine: Infantes sunt negativè Infideles, non positivè: Infants before Baptism, are Infidels negatively, not positively. Wherein they are distinguished from grown Heathens, being positively Infidels. Now if God infuseth Faith into Infidels that are such positively; yea, if the edge of his Power could be dulled by Resistance in the Sub­ject, he may infuse Faith into such as are negatively Infidels; here be­ing lesse resistance, and these having no opposite Habit, or Act of per­verse will.

But the strangenesse is, (saith he, who with sufficient unadvisednesse Doctor Taylor in his Liberty of prophesy­ [...] Sect. 18. and Incogitancy, tooke so much liberty in his Liberty of Prophesy­ing;) That there should be an Instru­ment without an Agent to mannage, or force to actuate it.

Doth not God infuse a reasonable Soul into a child, in the very darke Wombe: And is not Reason there in Actu signato, a long while, as an Instrument without an Agent to mannage, or force to actuate it? And though John the Baptist was truly Sanctified in the wombe, (which Sanctification was effected by the Infusion of habituall Grace,) and once leaped there for joy: Yet we hear Luk. 1. 41. no farther of such unusuall expressi­ons in his Nonage; neither have we reason to beleeve otherwise than that habituall Faith remained in him, as an Instrument without an Agent to mannage, or force to actu­ate it: nor will I dare to put him in equall balance with his Lord and Master. And though the last be an extraordinary Example: the first is not. And why we might not have such ordinary Examples, as fre­quently in the Order of Grace, as in the Order of Nature; I can not ken.

That John was truly and really purged in his Mothers wombe from Originall sin, and there Justified; St St. Aug. [...]p. 57. ad D [...] ­d [...]nu [...]. Austin denies; which St Hierom [Page 59] also disavows of Jeremy. St Au­stin's St H [...]erom. in cap. 1. Jerem. reason is: quia renasci prae­supponit nasci: because to be born a­gain, presupposes to be born.

I humbly answer: Man, with relation to his Capability of being born againe by Grace, is conceived to be then born when he is concei­ved in his Mothers Wombe, and receiveth a Soul and Life from God. For: as he is then born with! Origi­nall sin, so even then presently he may be reborn by Grace, and puri­fied from it; yea and Baptized, ei­ther his mother dying, and his way being opened; or she living, and he exerting a foot or hand: that the divine Remedy, as a remedy, may be as early as the disease.

And our Scripture-plea foreran the Forerunner: he shall be filled with Lu. 1. 15. the Holy Ghost, even from his mo­thers Wombe. The Syriack Bibles Syrorum Biblia. have sanctified, Spiritu sanctitatis, with the Spirit of Holinesse: And Codices A­rabui. the Arabick Bookes, in Utero, in the Wombe. And we may not admit such an Audacious Hyperbole in Scripture.

CHAP. XIX.

THis habituall Perfection, though it hath no precedent or concomi­taut Acts in Children, sutable with it: Yet hath it Acts precisely conse­quent to it.

For donbtlesse: Baptized Chil­dren, comming to the dawnings of Reason, are wonderfully moved and raised from the habituall principles of Faith, Hope, Charity, (these being inseparable in them) to many spi­rituall and excellent Essayes, of the which, their tendernesse is capable; and which are not in unbaptized Children, and ungarrison'd Souls. As when we graft a Rose-Tree, and in­sert a grain of Muske into the cleft of the Stock; all the Roses that spring from it, if the Tree be not blasted from the ambient Aire; will smell of Musk.

It is true: These Essaies are not explicit Acts of Faith, Hope, Cha­rity: Because these Acts ordinari­ly suppose acquired Knowledge, and Omnis nostra Cognitio à Sensu initium habet, all our acquired know­ledge [Page 61] begins by the Sense. And this Infusion being acted independenter ab Organis Corporalibus, without dependance on Corporeall Organs, as being meerly Spirituall; and acting upon the Soule ex parte Infusionis, as if it had no dependance on a Body: Except the body receive an outward Impression of Learning; the Man consisting of Soul and Bo­dy, is defective in part, and cannot ordinarily and explicitely produce Acts by the Combination of Body and Soul, tending to which produ­ction the Body hath no such present or former impression.

Although therefore, it flies from one mouth to another: Infantes Baptizati habent Fidem, uti Ratio­nem, in actu primo, non secundo: Bap­tized Infants have Faith as they have Reason, in the first Act, not in se­cond: that is: [...] non [...], potentialitèr, non energeticè; in re­mote power and aptitude, not in actu­all Operation: Yet it is not meant cum respectu ad consequentia, with respect to all that followes; as, that Faith in Children, proceeds of it selfe to explicit Act and exercise, as [Page 62] Reason doth, which needeth not outward instruction to the common exercise of reasonable Acts: Because Reason belongeth to a Man, as pro­per to him in his fleshly House, and as being in his Definition; which, Faith, as being supernaturall, and a Gift of Grace, doth not.

And this their habituall Perfecti­on, may be well apprehended, as in the reality of it's Infusion, so in it selfe: it being in them, sicut Ha­bitus est in Adultis dormientibus, & ex Habitu non operantibus, as an Habit is in us when we sleepe, and work not by the Habit. Wherefore Baptized Infants are Fideles, of the Faithfull Kinde. And indeed, grown Persons are not called Faithfull, ab actu, sed habitu Fidei, from the act, but from the habit of Faith; other­wise, when they sleep, and also, when they wake and thinke not of Faith or Divine Things, they should not be Fideles, Faithfull.

I confesse that a Baptized Child, educated amongst the Turks or In­dians, and not hearing of Christ, would be of the Indian or Turkish Profession: Because the Grace of [Page 63] Baptism would be lost and chased away, by the disordinate Applica­tion to sensible and present Things. For: As where the Sea is red or Nierem­berg. Hist. Naturae, lib. 16. cap. 57. De mari ru­bro & nigro. black, the Rocks and Sands are al­so there black or red: So we com­monly conform in Religion, to the places of our Education, and are effigiated in morality by the man­ners of the Persons with whom we live.

CHAP. XX.

THese recluse and profound se­crets of Knowledge, will be the more pervious, if this note con­cerning our Habits be enterwea­ved.

Those Habits of Vertues which God (the Lord of all Spirituall Trea­sure) insuseth into the Soule, are actively produced by God, with­out us, (who passively receive them,) or our aid and co-operation. Whence an Infused Habit is defined, Bona Qualitas Mentis, quam Deus in nobis, sine nobis operatur: A good Quality of the Minde, which God worketh in us, without us. And: [Page 64] Habitus in Adultis tribuunt facili­tatem Potentiae ad operandum: Ha­bits in grown Persons, give a facility of working to the Power; as being capable of it. And the Acts of those Habits, either elicite or imperate, that is, the exercises of Vertue, are so produced by Grace in us, and in the Powers of our Soul, ( good Ha­bits not comming forth into Act, but by the present Influx of actuall Grace,) that we also, must active­ly concurre, and not only vitally, but also readily, freely, and with Election, and ordination to some honest end; to their production. 1 Cor. 3. 9. Text. Graec. Lect. Vulg. [...], saith St Paul: or, as the Vulgar, Dei enim adjuto­res sumus; For we are helpers of God, in the worke of God: or, as the English: For we are laborers toge­ther with God.

From this Doctrine of Habits, the second Arausican Councill took Concil. Araus. se­cund. can. 20. S. Aug. in Sententiis, num. 311. i'ts Rise, when it published out of St Austin: Multa enim Bona facit in Homine, sine Homine, Deus: Sed nihil Boni facit Homo quod non fa­ciat Deus, ut faciat Homo. Many good things God works in Man with­out [Page 65] Man: But Man doth no good thing which God is not the cause that Man is the Cause of. The former part of this part of the Canon, speaks of Habituall Grace in the Infusion: the latter part, of actuall Grace and Operation.

It is Visible here, that the Na­ture of an Habit is compossible with the childishnesse of Children: and that the Habit doth not give a fa­cility of working to their Powers, by reason of their Indisposition, inward and outward; as we are indisposed, being in a sleep, or Traunce, or di­stracted with Affairs of a lower or­der.

I am startled sometimes with horror and amazement, as if I were planet-struck; when I consider and chew in my Thoughts, how incon­siderately and rashly, the ignorant ranting Rabble of Men, Women and Children, being exhausti Pudo­ris, of exhausted shamefastnesse, rush beyond the Hoop, and make a rude assault upon these hidden Depths, and Heigths, and Breadths; the sound Explications and evoluti­ons whereof, are imbodied in [Page 66] School-Divinity. They should hear Lucianus adversus indoctum. the Doggs barke in Lucian; which when young Neanthus plaied upon the Harp of Orpheus without Or­pheus his skill; enraged with his tunes out of tune, ran with open mouth upon him, and tore him, al­most into as many picces, as the noise he made, consisted of Discords.

That Baptism is the Instrument of our new Birth, the Fathers and old Interpreters of Scipture, beare up by generall Acclamation. I en­ter Tert. lib de Baptismo cap. 1. Tertullian as their Orator: Nos Pisciculi secundùm [...] nostrum Jesum Christum, in aqua nascimur: We little Fishes, according to our Fish, Jesus Christ, are Spiritually born in the Water. His explicit mea­ning as it depends upon History, is: [...], Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Sa­viour, being the Motto or Title of Consignation in all our Affairs, and by us gathered together in short, according to the first and Head-Letters, into [...] is by you coagulated with scorn, and inter­preted a Fish: who notwithstan­ding is mystically and Metaphori­cally [Page 67] our Fish; and we according to our mysticall Head thus intimated by these Head-Letters, are inwardly born with the Fishes in their se­cret Element exposed to our mysti­call Use.

CHAP. XXI.

THE second objection is: If the Text declares for Baptism; either there is an halfe-Birth, and some are new-borne by halfes; or, all the Baptized shall enter into the Kingdome of God: quae ambo, sunt inconvenientia.

I answer to the first Member: There is no halfe-Birth; neither are Baptized Children new-born by halfes. For: the whole worke of the new-Birth is compleated in them: They have, saving Faith you may call it, or Sanctifying Grace; and they are Justified. Only: They have not this Grace or Faith, quoad externum exercitium, according to outward exercise: the effect of all, being as yet immanent and inward. Because, Quicquid recipitur, ad mo­dnm recipientis recipitur: What­soever is received, is received and [Page 68] contained according to the manner and measure of the Receiver. And Children receiving the Life of Grace, when the corporeall Or­gans remain slatted, and lying mor­tuo modo, after a dead manner, in re­gard of such high and lively per­formances: we may not expect ex­ercise, untill teaching shall [...]. 2 Tim 1. 6. in Textu Graeco. stir up the gift and grace of God in them, by blowing the coale, hid and lying as dead, some while in the Ashes: As the Fire [...], which fell from Heaven, was nourished and cherished with the Suppliance of ordinary Matter and Helpes, by the Priests under the old Law.

For: Supernaturall Habits are outwardly manifested and explica­ted by naturall, outward and ordina­nary Meanes: though Habits can­not be strengthened inwardly or aug­mented, but with Acts of the same kinde.

A Coat for the body of a Child, may be a whole Coat, a sit Coat, and a warme one, though it appears outwardly but a little Coat.

And as we draw Originall sin [Page 69] from our Parents, so God our Hea­venly Parent, in a due Time, takes us up de matre cadentes, falling from the Mother, and being uncleane; with a cleansing Ordinance. And because the Grace of Christ is, at the least, as great as the Prevarication of Adam; they who are made guil­ty by the first Adam, may not be neglected by the second: And there­fore, his Visible Ordinances are ad­dressed towards them as soone as they Visibly appeare in the world.

But the reverend and Politick Doctor objects for his Brethren the Doct. Tay­lor in his Liberty of prophesy­ing. Sect. 18. Anabaptists: That, Grace being an improvement and heigthning of the Faculties of Nature, in order to a Supernaturall and most high End; hath no influence or Efficacy upon the Faculties of such, who cannot reasonably perform the naturall Acts of Understanding.

The Answer is: Grace in Chil­dren, perfects and heigthens the Fa­culties of their Souls, by cleansing them, by adorning them for God, and consequently by stating them in a capacity of their supernaturall End. For though as Aquinas admonishes: [Page 70] Fi [...]em oportet esse praecognitum Ho­minibus, D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. art. 1. in corp. qui suas intentiones & acti­ones debent ordinare in Finem: It be necessary that the End should be fore­known by Men, who ought to direct their intentions and actions to their End: Yet in Children, in whom, for their defect of Understanding, there can be no such direction or di­rig [...]ble Action; God Almighty di­rects and acts for them; and they are directed by him towards their Su­pernaturall End, Sicut Sagitta à Sa­gittante dirigitur versus Scopum, as an Arrow is by the Archer directed towards the Mark; God working in and with all things, answerably to their being and capacity: and supply­ing, as the Supreme cause, their de­fects.

CHAP. XXII.

TO the other Member of the ob­jection: Or, all the Baptized shall enter into the Kingdome of God: I answer: All fitly qualified for the whole effect of Baptism, and right­ly Baptized, shall enter into the King­dome of God; modò posteà non ponant [Page 71] obicem, if afterwards they, on their own part, scatter no impediment in their own way.

Simon Magus hath no worke for a Cooper; (I despise no man whose Father is a Cooper; but if such a one shall undertake to Hoope-binde his Hogsheads, or Bucking-Tubs, and not perform it strongly; I shall merrily tell him of it:) because he was not sitly qualified, though Bap­tized. Act [...] 8. 13. Ponder the Text: Then Si­mon himselfe beleeved also: and when he was Baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondred, beholding the miracles and signes which were done. His Faith and Foundation was not sound: therefore his Baptism and Superstructure was not safe; he re­maining still unqualified: the fit qualification of an Adult, for the whole effect of Baptism, being Faith and Repentance.

The Divines have truly disco­vered foure Kindes of false Faith in true and Holy Scripture: The Faith of the Heretick: The Faith of the false Christian: The Faith of the curious Person: The Faith of the Person unquiet or unstable. All [Page 72] these have misplaced and mis-cen­tred their Faith. Guesse now I be­seech you, which of these false Faiths, was the faithlesse Faith of this false Dealer, Simon the Magiti­an. Surely: his Faith was the Faith, which, as the rest, leanes not upon the Veracity of [...]od, the Revealer of Truth, in his Revelation; nor up­on the well-groundednesse of the Church, the Pillar of Truth, in her Proposition; but is generated and earth-begotten, when (this being its differentiall marke) the person is hurried on with a curious Motive of seeing Miracles: as the Scribes and Pharisees were, saying Master, Mat. 1 [...]. 38. we would see a signe from thee: Of whom also St Paul: The Jews re­quire 1 Cor. 1. [...]2. a signe. And Herod was tainted Luk. 23. 18. in this kind.

This Faith was the broad-ey'd and staring Child of Amazement and A­mulement. And therefore, even the Apostles themselves were deceived, etsi non i [...] materia Juris, in materia tamen Facti, though not in matter of Right or Law▪ yet in matter of Fact.

But the Member here, serpera­stro cohibendum est, must be swathed [Page 73] up. The Alchymists uncertainly ob­trude Alchymistae. to us, to keep streight their curious opinion of the Philosophers Stone, and of the making of Gold; That Nature intendeth Gold in all Metals; and that if the Crudities, Leprosities, Impurities of Metals were cured; they would all evade into Gold. Certainly: God intends intentione primariâ, with his prima­ry intention, that the Sacraments should be rightly received by all the Receivers, (and that they should all enter into the Kingdome of God;) and if they be not, the fault most com­monly is in the Impurities, Lepro­sities, Crudities of the receivers; their impure Heresie, their leprous Christi­anity, their curious and unstable Cru­dity.

He wils no man absolutely from his entrance into the Kingdome of God. And that he foreknows the non-entrance of many, hath no for­cible operation upon the Things fore­known: Sicut enim, as St Austin, S A [...]g. in sent [...]nti [...]. S [...]. 379. nemo memoriâ suâ cogit facta esse quae praetereunt, sic Deus praescientiâ suâ non cogit facienda quae futura sunt: For as no Man by his remem­bring [Page 74] of things past, compels them in­to Vide quae sequuntur apud Au­gustinum. a past being: So God by his presci­ence and foresight of things to come, forces them not into being hereafter. But he wils it conditionally, from the breach of his Condition in his Co­venant with Man-kinde.

Divinely St Bernard: Rectè De­us non pater judiciorum vel Ul [...]ionum S. Bern. Serm. 8. in Natali Do­mini. dicitur, sed pater Misericordiarum, eò quòd miserendi caus [...]m & origi­nem sumat ex proprio, judicandi vel ulciscendi magis ex nostro: God is rightly said to be, not the Father of Judgements or of Revenges, but the Father of Mercies; because he takes the cause and origin of shewing Mer­cy, from his own; but of judging and revenging from us.

And from the bottom of Reason: Reprobation is an Act of divine Ha­tred; and God hates nothing in man exept sin; and therefore, doth not reprobate Man for any thing but for sin.

CHAP. XXIII.

TO right Baptism is required; ex parte Baptismi, vel Sacramen­ti [Page 75] on the part of Baptisme or of the Sa­crament: 1: right Matter: which is, naturall water, not artificiall as Rose­water & the like. And it must be wa­ter in its proper and simple Element, not compounded▪ 2: right Form: As: I Baptize thee in the name of the Father Ecclesia O [...] ­cid [...]ntali [...]. and of the Son and of the Holy, Ghost, according to the received use of the Western Churches: or, as the Ecclesia Grae [...], E [...] O [...]a­les aliae quaedam. Church of Greece, and some other Orientall Churches; Baptizetur Ser­vus Christi, talis, in nomine Patris, &c. Let the servant of Christ be Bap­tized (here he is named) in the Name of the Father, &c. For: the Grecians doe not attribute the Act of Baptism to the Minister Sacra­menti, Minister▪ of the Sacrament; that they may de industria, of set purpose, professedly and practically condemn the old errour of those who attributed the virtue of Bap­tism to the Baptizers, saying, I am of Paul, and I of Apollo, and I of Cephas. 1 Cor. 1. 12.

With a beame cast upon these Requisites on the part of the Sacra­ment, St Austin is doctrinall: Ac­cedit S Aug. Tractat. 80. in J [...]an. Verbum ad Elementum, & fit [Page 76] Sacramentum; The Word is apply­ed to the Element, and there is made a Sacrament.

And, ex parte Baptizantis, on the part of the Baptizer; we may not undervalue his right intention. For: as a certaine Forme of words is re­quired by the pull of necessity, that the indifferency of the Matter may be determined; so there is need of some speciall Intention, formall or virtuall, to determine the indifferen­cy of the Form: otherwise, he that shall accidentally reade or utter the words or formall part of the Sacra­ment, in strange or profane mat­ters and occasions; shall be said to reade or utter them Sacramentally.

And in Conscience: The Mini­ster of a Sacrament, doth not Act Sacramentally, but as Minister Chri­sti, the Minister of Christ: and he cannot act as the Minister of Christ, except he doth intend the worke of Christ, and to Act after his pre­scription.

And lastly, ex parte Baptizati, on the part of the Baptized, right qualification is required: which in Infants, is; That they are offered to [Page 77] the Church, and supplied with the Faith of it, that they may be offe­red to God.

CHAP. XXIIII.

AND it is not absonous from Truth, that the Kingdome of God is open to the rightly Baptized: The Scriptures being impregnably strong for it.

The Ap [...]stle St Peter having ope­ned the sluees of Heaven, and brought the sloud into his Discourse, and how some were saved by water in the Ark. ass [...]meth: The like figure 1 Pet. 3. 21. whereunto, even Baptism doth also now save us. And St Paul is divine­ly Tit. 3. 5. symphonous: But according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of Regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The Originall deales it: [...]: which the Text. Graec Vulgar doth re [...]est into its native signification; per Lavacrum Regene­rationis; Edit Vulg. by the Laver of Regenera­tion.

Then are we saved by Baptism, as by a Sacramentall Instrument. Then are we likewise washed in Bap­tism, [Page 78] from Originall sin. Then is Baptism the Sacrament of Regenera­tion; and consequently of Initiati­on.

And it is most conformable to the royall way of divine Mercy, and to right Reason, the royall Work of the divine Power; that the Sacra­ment which initiates us, should also instrumentally regenerate us, and compliablie lift us up into the royall state of Salvation: that the Goodnesse of God may be, not onely as large and extensive, but also in some sort, as intensive and efficacious for us to life and delive­rance, as the malice of the Devill is to Death and destruction.

Wherefore Ananias to Paul, then Act. 22. 16. Saul: Arise, and be Baptized, and wash away thy sins. For: As the outward filth of the body is washed away with water: so the blood of Jesus Christ applied in Baptism, 1 Joh. 1. 7. cleanseth us from all sin; which is the filth of the Soul.

Then are our actuall sins also, committed (if such there be) before Baptism, washed away by it. And either this water-signe must be Sig­num [Page 79] inane, a vain Signe, and of no effect; or there is an inward washing, suppositis intere à supponendis. And if there be; this washing, God's works being perfect, and Sanctifying Grace being opposed to all sin, must be a washing from all sin.

Which compleat washing is indeed so properly the Thing intended by the Author of the Sacrament, and Giver of Grace; that be the outward washing more or lesse, (I speak here of Infants; not of Adults, in whom the Grace received is corres­pondent with the qualification of the Subject,) the inward effect doth not recipere magis & minùs, but is ever the same.

Because God lookes upon the End in every practicall touch of his Power; which End is the chi [...]fe in all the course, and the first intentio­nally, though executively the last: and Grace the Gift of God, is an at­tendant upon the Thing signi­fied, and doth not attemperate it selfe to the manner of signifying. And therefore Baptism given with a threefold Immersion, doth not more justify, than Baptism conferred by [Page 80] one Immersion or Inspersion: And yet, the first is a more expresse and visible signe of Sacrramentall Grace; because it washeth more perfectly; and furthermore, adumbrates the most blessed Trinity, in whose most blessed Name the Baptism is gi­ven.

A Roman Councill celebrated un­der Gregory the Great, and the same Gregory together with Gratianus, firmly set a bar upon this Truth. Le­ander Bishop of Hispalis or Sivil, imploreth Gregory his Determina­tion concerning Immersion, whether it should be one or three-fold: Gregory answers as followeth. De Concilium Roman. sub Gre [...]cio primo: & i­dem Greg lib. 1. Regi­st [...]i, [...]p. 4. ad Leandrum Episc. His­pal [...]nsem: & allegat Gratianus de Consecra­tions, D [...]st. 4. cap. de trina. trinâ mersione Baptismatis nil re­sponderi verius potest, quàm quod ipsi sensistis; quia in una Fide nihil officit sanctae Ecclesiae Consuetudo di­versa. Nos autem quòd tertio merge­mus, triduauae Sepulturae Sacramenta signamus; ut dum tertiò Infans ab aquis educitur, Resurrectio tr [...]duani temporis exprimatur. Quòd si quis fortè, etiam pro summae srinitatis Veneratione, existimet fieri; neque ad hoc aliquid obsistit, Baptizando semel in aquis mergere: quia dum [Page 81] in tribus Subsistentijs una Substan­tia est, reprehe sibile esse ni [...]a tenùs potest, Infantem in Baptismate vel ter vel semel immergere; qu [...]ndò & in tribus mersionibus personarum Trinitas, & in una potest D. vinita­tis Singular it as designari. Concer­ning the threefold Immersion in Bap­tism, nothing can be answered more truly, than that which ye have thought; (Leander and the Church of Sivil used one Immersion;) be­cause a diverse Custome of the Holy Church hurts not where there is one Faith. [...]ut we dipping the third time, declare the Mystery of the three dayes Sepulture; that while the Infant is drawn from the water the third time, the Resurrection of Christ after three dayes, may be thereby expressed. If any perhaps may thinke it to be done, even for the veneration of the highest Trinity; neither is there any hinderance to this, but such a one may dip once onely the Baptized Person: Because there being one Sub­stance in three Subsistences, it cannot be at all reprehensible, to dip the In­fant in Baptism either three times or once; whereas in three Mersions, [Page 82] the Trinity of Persons; and in one, the Singularity of the Divinity may be designed.

Also: in the Thing signified there is never any difference, Rebus eodem modo se habentibus: because God works infallibly: And: Agens agit ad extremum Potentiae, si Patiens eo­dem modo se habeat: The Agent acts to the utmost of his Power, if the Patient be alike disposed: And not only the Naturall, but also the Voluntary Agent, respectively to what he proposes and intends.

Let the backward-witted Ana­baptists know, that a Divine must not expatiate altogether in Scrip­tures, which in every purge-moti­on, or Tickle of their Imagination, they turne and wire-draw with their most unnaturall and violent Interpretations, to their own ever­lasting Perdition.

CHAP. XXV.

HEer now remaineth yet one obstacle: this being the last and strongest Quill which the Porcu­pine shoots in this encounter. If [Page 83] Children be infallibly Sanctified in Baptism, then is there a falling from Grace.

My answer is. I confesse in the sight of the Sun, that my Judgement goes aequis passibus, with some Indepen­dents in many particulars. For ex­ample: in the Doctrine of Univer­sal Redemption, if piously regulated: Of Conditionall Reprobation; and that our sins and Damnation are of our selves; our Salvation of God: That there is a moderate Freedome in Man with reference to supernatu­rall Actions, excluding Pelagius and the Massilienses or Semipelagians; and that the Action hath its being free, from our Will, and from the Divine Grace, it's being gracious: These actions in us being some­what like the theandricall Operati­ons in Christ: and in all their Do­ctrines, militant against the Calvi­nists; wherein the Independents as noble Creatures and Adversaries to the Viper, free our most good and most pure God from being the Au­thor of the Evill of most impure sin. Likewise: that there is a Falling from Grace. Which not being [Page 84] granted: the Anabaptist will here throw the Paedobaptist slat upon his back, that neither Scripture nor Learning will be able to relieve or help him; except he shall pittifully fly to this miserable and unreasona­ble [...], that some infants are Sanctified by the Sacrament, and others are not.

Neither are these the Doctrines of Independents onely, but also of the most expert Scholars of the English Nation; against whom I shall never take up this Gauntlet.

The Grace in the question, is habituall Grace: and the falling, is a Falling for a Time in the Saints of God, and a finall Falling in Repro­bates. For: He that saies, the Elect fall finally, [...]als himselfe presently into a Contradiction: And: Contra­dicentium unum necessariò ve [...]um, alierum falsum est: Of contradic­tory Sayings the one is necessarily true, the other false: And in a Contradi­ction being grounded upon esse & non-esse; and therefore, consisting of two parts, where of the one denieth Being, and the other affirmeth to be; it is impossible that both parts should [Page 85] be true, that is, should be, other­wise than Chimerically. If they be Elected by God to Salvation, whose Decrees concerning our last End are immutable; they cannot fall finally from it: And: if they can fall final­ly from Salvation, they are not E­lected by God to it: the immediate Jarr being betwixt ens & non-ens, being and not being; betwixt being Elected and not being Elected; betwixt falling finally, and not final­ly falling.

The firm Tenure therefore, of this Truth is: That as the Sense of Tou­ching, like a faithfull and most un­separable Achates, staies outward­ly with us unto the last breath; and this ending to act, Death be­gins Vide Arist [...] lib. 3. de anima, cap. 13. Tex [...]. 67. to execute: So the Elect may for a while, and Reprobates finally doe, lose all the lively Touchings and faithfull Attendance of inward and habituall Grace, and consequent­ly, the Life of Godlinesse.

CHAP. XXVI.

I Receive Scripture in the hum­ble Gius. in vi­ta Caroli Borromaei, lib. 8. cap. 2. posture of Carolus Borromaeus, [Page 86] who read it alwaies upon his Knees, as humbly attending to the Royall Words of his King. And my first Text is: But when the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousnesse, Eze. 18. 24. and committeth Iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, shall he live? all his Righteousnesse that he hath done, shall not be mentioned: In his Trespasse that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. Here it is evidently sup­posed, that the Righteous man may, and sometimes doth, fall fi­nally; as dying in his sins and Tres­passes: yea, that he loses while he lives, not only Gratiam gratum fa­cientem, the Grace by which he is properly acceptable to God, and which gives to the Soule a divine and supernaturall Being; and conse­quently, the Habit of Charity, (these not being distinguished, according to Scotus and the Anti-Scotian Scotus & Scotistae. Scotists; the same gift, as it makes us beloved of God and accepted to Glory, being called Grace, and, as it renders us Lovers of God, be­ing named Charity;) but also all good [Page 87] Habits that are meerly naturall and morall, and which cannot be ex­pelled by one opposite Act, but re­quire many such Acts to their expul­sion; such Habits being acquired by the multiplication of Acts of the same nature, and therefore, being weakned by the diminution of them, and lost by cessation from them; and by the frequent acting of opposite Acts: For, he is here declared to doe according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, and to have put himselfe into a lost condi­tion, wherein all his righteousnesse that he hath done, shall not be men­tioned; our past Acts, intercepted by a change, not returning upon us except we be qualified and opened for them by a condition agreable to them.

My second Text is: And because M [...]t. 24 12. 13. Iniquity shall abound, the love of ma­ny shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. The Greek Text affords, [...], the Charity of many shall wax Text. Graec. cold. Which words imply a totall extinction of Charity, and a cold­nesse of Death; because the cold­nesse [Page 88] of Charity is opposed here to Perseverance, which endures unto the end; and the opposition or anti­thesis would not be right and even, unlesse it were a coldnesse losing all heat of Charity, and ending in coldnesse: And the Text suppo­ses, that few shall endure unto the end, yea but one amongst many, the rest losing their Charity.

My third Text: Know ye not that 1 Cor. 3. 16. 17. ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the Tem­ple of God is Holy, which Temple ye are. The Original goes, [...]: If Text. Grac. any man destroy the Temple of God, him shall God destroy. It is conse­quent: the Temple of God may be destroyed; and the Person, who was the Temple of God, and in whom the Spirit of God dwelled, may be de­stroyed finally.

My fourth text: Holding Faith and a good Conscience, which some 1 Tim. 1. 19. having put away, concerning Faith have made shipwrack. A good Con­science conspiring with Faith, is a [Page 89] true mark of Gods's faithfull Ser­vant: yet, some that had a good Con­science, have put it away, and thereby made shipwrack of their Faith: which they could not have done, had they not once been in the Ship or Arke of the Church, and there obtained, first their Faith, and then, their good Conscience: and therefore, they were utterly unravell'd, as losing, first their good Conscience, and then their Faith.

My fifth Text is: In the latter 1 Tim. [...]. 1 [...] times some shall depart from the faith. But no man actually departeth from that which he hath not. It runs on: giving heed to seducing Spirits, and Doctrines of Devils. And no man is rightly said to be seduced from a false faith, but only, from the true faith: Neither is any seduced Person entangled in the false Doctrines of Devils, but as relinquishing the true Doctrine of God: from the possession of which, being drawn, he is properly seduced and led out of his way, having been in it; the seduction here, not being a seducti­on from the way to the Doctrine of God, but a seduction from the Do­ctrine [Page 90] which is the way of God, this being diametrically and immediately opposed to the Doctrines of Devils.

Many more Texts there be, if summed up by the Algebra of in­genuous and Christian Candour: but even these are able singly to heave out the objection. And: if we can­not fall from Grace or Faith: why doth holy Scripture exhort us pro­miscuously, many times and pres­singly, to stand fast, hold fast, perse­vere? and why doe we produce and prosecute these Texts in our Ser­mons? Exhortation alwaies presup­posing a possibility of the contrarie.

The Text in high esteem with our low square Knights of the round Hoop: The gifts and calling of God Rom. 11. 29. are without Repentance: gives no­thing to the adverse party, but only a call to Repentance. For: although the Originall word be [...], impenitible; and the Basilean Code Text. Graec. Codex Ha­s [...]eensis. Syrus In­ [...]crp. exalts, [...], immutable; and the Syriack shrines it, non mutavit Deus Donum suum & Vocationem; God hath not changed his Gift and Vocation: Yet this proposition is intended de Vocatione absoluta & [Page 91] efficaci, of the absolute and efficaci­ous Vocation of predestinated persons, with respect to the finall effect, which assuredly followes: and of the Gifts in order to it. And if you wry it from this, you move croked­ly; because, Many are called but few, &c. And in genere, it is true of inefficacious Vocation and Grace, quantum est ex parte Dei, as consi­dered and weighed on God's part; and on the part of his antecedent, not of his consequent and judiciary will.

CHAP. XXVII.

REason, as the Handmaid, waits upon Scripture.

First: if Charity be considered ex parte Subjecti, on the part of the Subject: the Subject being vertible and mutable, Charity may be lost by actuall mutation. For, in regard that this Charitas viae, Charity of the way, doth not fill the whole possibi­lity of the Subject, and therefore, is not alwaies actually, nor at any time necessarily carried towards God: in the time wherein it ceaseth from act, the Subject being free from ne­cessity [Page 92] and coaction, hath power at the presentation of other concur­rences, to disband the Habit.

Secondly: if Charity be conside­red ex parte Habitus, on its own part, or on the part of the Habit: the use of the Habits in us on our parts, is from our will, as from an active Power or Faculty; and there is essen­tially required in our will, a Reference ad utrumque Oppositorum, to both the Opposites; that is, as well to the one as to the other: in respect of which Respect or Reference, the Subject or Agent is variable.

Thirdly: The understanding of a Saint militant, is capable of dark­nesse and offuscation: and every sin descends from some kinde of igno­rance: Whence the Philosopher: Arist in Ethic. lib. 3. Omnis Malus, ignorans est: Every evill person is ignorant: Therefore, we are then only secure of Holy Charity in our will, when we are secure of perfect Knowledge in our Understanding: as, when we clear­ly see the first Truth, the clear sight whereof is our Blessednesse: There­fore, if we are not secured by Grace, from ignorance and errrour; nei­ther [Page 93] are we secured by Grace, in the possession of Grace.

Fourthly: The will of Man in hoc statu, is mutable: & therfore, the state or condition of it, is likewise mutable. For: there agreeth not with our will a state of immutability, or immutable Adhesion, but when our will is ade­quately filled, and hath nothing offe­red to it by the which it may be di­verted from it's Object: and it cannot be filled when any thing remaines to be desired: and some strange Thing will obtrude it self as desirable, untill we are united with our last End.

Fiftly: Man is made flexible by Disoipline: and therefore (as before) people exalted to Grace, are exhor­ted to beware lest they fall from it. Looking diligently, lest any man fail Heb. 12 15. of (or fall from, saith the Margeant,) the Grace of God.

Sixtly: I pretermit the fall of the Angels, and of our first Parents: al­so, of Solomon St Peter, &c. And I argue thus. David was a saint of God: The same David committed Adultery, and Murder: This very Commission, even in its very first adventure, was a foule falling [Page 94] from the fair Law of God, and from the gracious keeping of it, and by consequence from the gracious Helps of keeping the Law, where­of the chiefe is Habituall Grace.

If you return: It was a Falling from the actuall Use of that Help, but not from the habituall Possession of it: It is answered: It was a Falling from Habituall Grace, as it was a Falling from the Law of God the Giver of Grace for the keeping it; these being equally Gods In­struments, and though divided in their places, yet united in their Office and work: And the Law was thrown out of his Keeping and Possession.

Againe: If the inward Help of Habituall Grace be not actually us'd, in the meeting and convention of circOne of the killers, Steven Green, was found guilty on May 07, 2009 in the US District Court of Paducah and is now awaiting sentencing.mstances implying our strict ob­ligation, and our just freeing of God's Honour; but on the contrary, the maine End of the Habit be perver­ted by the full and free admission of Contrary Acts: the Habit being de­baried of imployment when it should worke, certainly fares as God fares [...]he Author of the Habit, [Page 95] and he that dwels in us by it, and works by it in us; who now is oppo­sed by contrary procedings, utterly thrown off, set at desiance, and al­together contemned; all the secret cords of Love and Unity being bro­ken.

And to say, that God dwels by Habituall Grace in a Soule contem­ning him, setting him at defiance, throwing off him and his chiefe In­struments, inward and outward; and contrarying him in his waies and works; is to defie with a gracelesse defiance, both Scripture and Reason. What fellowship hath righteousnesse 2 Cor. 6. 14, 15. with unrighteousnesse? and what communion hath light with darke­nesse? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? The word Beliall signi­fies in the Hebrew School, without profit, or, in the cast of another deri­vation, without yoke: And it is taken sometimes in concreto, as the Latine Oratores Latini. Orators use pro Scelesto Scelus, wic­kednesse for a wicked man; and so it is takable here: And therefore the Sy­riack sounds it, What concord is there, Syrus In­terp. Messiae cum Satana, of the Messias with Satan? Satan derives it selfe▪ [Page 96] saith Isidore, from the Hebrew Sha­tan; Isid. in Ety­mol. which is Englished, he is an Adversary. And God's greatest Ad­versary, is sin: Yea, the Devill is not his Adversary, but for sin. And doth God keep his Holy Temple, (which if it be not Holy, is not his Temple,) where sin and the Devill set up their unholy Standard, and build impure Trophies after their Victory and Triumph over the Tem­ple of God? O Myriads of Contra­dictions!

And the Apostle must be under­stood of exact Light and extreme Darkenesse: for otherwise, there is Communion betwixt them: And Adultery begetting Murder, Procee­deth from extreme Darkenesse; and is, it selfe, dark and dark; Adulte­rously Dark, and Murderously Dark.

Be it so: That Peccatum opponi­tur Gratiae, ut Gratia est, non con­trariè, s [...]d demeritoriè: Sin is op­posed to grace, not as contraries are opposed, but as the Sinner demerits a Jewell of such Excellency: Yet, one contrary Act being accepted into the retiring-place of a Supernaturall Habit, (the Supernaturall Habit, [Page 97] according to the common course of Habits; inclining, not compelling us to it's Act, nor of necessity pre­cluding the way to a contrary Act,) this peccaminous and contrary Act puts the Supernaturall Habit to flight, as possessing and contaminating al the powers of the soul; a coexistence by the Rules of Divine Oeconomy, not being allowed on either side.

Besides: What should hinder, that he who does the works of Carnal and unconverted Men, called the works of Darkenesse; should not be known by his Fruits; and be in a dark and Carnall condition, as such men are? especially, St John testifying: 1 Joh. 2 9. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his Brother, is in darkenesse, even untill now. Which cannot be meant, but of Habituall darknesse and Hatred of our Brother, that con­tinueth untill it be expelled by the Habituall Love of our Brother: As Faith expelleth Infidelity, (and is expelled only by it;) these not being able to stand in the same Subject, in eodem Nun [...] in the same Now of time. And sans doubt: he that wilfully murdereth his brother, hateth him. [Page 98] Moreover: If David fully and whol­ly consented to Adultery and Mur­der; all the Spirituall Parts of Da­vid in David, were of the conspi­racy; and as they could, preferred Adultery and Murder before God, as majus Bonum Davidi, magisque desiderabile, a greater Good to David, and more desireable, either as plea­surable or profitable: But Habituall Grace could not conspire in this kinde, so much as negatively, by de­nying or suspending it's Help; because if it be, it alwaies Acts for God, as a Supernaturall Habit; and hath such a neer link with Heaven, and like­nesse with Divinity, that it cannot betray it's Trust. And neither can any good Habit be used evilly, be­sides what may be said of remisse Acts.

I give, That indifferent Acts may be acted without the concurrence or Subduction of the Supernaturall Ha­bit: And if Aquinas and his Tho­mists D. Tho. & Thomistae. do substantially prove, some Sins to be praeter Legem, non contra eam, besides the Law, not against it; or equivalently, not contrary to Cha­rity, though contrary to the perfecti­on [Page 99] of it; the same Doctrine may not be repealed concerning these.

And to what new-found Utopia in David, could Grace retreat; all David consenting to Adultery cry­ing Murder?

Furthermore: Praecisione intel­lectivâ & rationis, etiamsi non reali & objectivâ; By intellective, though not by objective and reall Precision: If David had died in his Act of A­dultery, or consent to Murder: had he been carried to Heaven or Hell? If to Hell; then he was not in a san­ctified State, or the state of Habitu­all Grace: If to Heaven; then would there have been a going to Heaven without Repentance after sin; and many plain Texts of Scripture would have moulder'd into nothing.

This Dilemma though most un­conquerable, a certaine uncertaine and inferiour Waiter on the lower CLasses, would elude with a supponis quod non est supponendum, you sup­pose what may not be supposed▪ for, you may not suppose a Falsehood to prove a Truth.

I answer: Then [...] we all Divines taken an evill course in all their good [Page 100] Discourses; who frequently enter their proofs with, Si per impossibile daretur &c. And yet I will distin­guish here (that I may be liberall to my friend) betwixt falsum ex Na­tura Z▪ b [...]rella in M [...]aph. sua, & propter intrinsecam re­pugnantiam Terminorum, & falsum ex suppositione Decreti extrinseci; That which is false of it's nature, and by reason of intrinsecall repugnance in the Terms, and that which is false from supposition of the extrinsecal Decree. And I consider not David now, as a predestinated person by Virtue of the Divine Ordination, (from which I totally prescind,) but with a full eye upon his murderous Adultery, inhumanely committed by Divine permission. And such a Suppo­sition is not repugnant with the proof, but is only and simply previous to it, in such an imaginary Case as this is.

CHAP. XXVIII.

THE third Objection succeeds. Christ and his Apostles, in their discoursing and preaching, never presled Baptism, at the first lift; but [Page 101] either faith or repentance, or these together.

I answer. Hoop. Whither so fast? come back. Never, is a Term of Infinity: in the which becau [...]e it here states the Proposition, and be­twixt finite and infinite there is an infinite distance; it unmakes the Pro­position by making it infinitely false.

I distinguish therefore. We may consider Baptism to be presled, at the first lift, by one discoursing or Preaching; ( cum respectu ad Finem;) either that it may be presently known by him with whom he dis­courseth, or, to whom he prea­cheth; as the first Sacramentall Or­dinance, ipso facto vel dicto, moving him to immediate preparation: or, that it may be presently us'd by him in his own Person. In the last conside­ration▪ it was never presled, at the first lift, by Christ or his Apostles, to the persons with whom they dis­coursed or preached: But in the first Consideration, it was first pres­sed to Nicodemus.

Yet: this was not the ordinary, and every-day course of Christ and [Page 102] his Apostles: Because in their dis­coursing and preaching, their busi­nes being only with Adults; their first Businesse Ordine Naturae, (which is not alwaies ordo Doctrinae,) was their Qualification. Wherefore when John the Baptist began to preach to the People of the Jews, he began, Repent ye, for the King­ome Mat [...]h. 3. 2. of Heaven is at hand. When Christ began to preach to the same People, he began after the same manner: Repent, for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand. When the Mat. 4. 17. twelve were sent forth by two and two, amongst the same People: (it stands recorded of them:) they went Mar. 6. 12. out, and preached that men should Repent. When Peter had ended his first Sermon, preached likewise to the Jews, after the comming of the Holy Ghost, which Jews had now been the Crucifiers of Christ: and the people troubled in Heart, said unto Peter, and to the rest of the Act. 2. 37, 38. Apostles, Men and Brethren, what shall we doe? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Je­sus Christ, for the remission of sins, [Page 103] and ye shall receive the Gift of the ho­ly Ghost: Repentance in grown per­sons being the first fruit and work of Faith, (which is the only Basis and adequate foundation of all Christian Vertues;) and being requisite toge­ther with Faith, in such persons, to Baptism.

It hath two faces, faciem Huma­nam, & faciem Angelicam▪ an Hu­mane face turn'd backward and sor­rowfull; an Angelicall face turn'd forward, and shewing a cheerfull Resolution: And it hath answera­bly, two works or Acts. St Gregory S Greg. H [...]m. 34. in Evang. puts them together: Poenitentia est, anteacta peccata deflere, & deflenda, iterùm non committere: Repentance is, to Lament for our sins committed, and not to commit the sins to be La­mented for. Which Acts are jointly preparatory, in persons that have actually sinned; and are in the cause, that there are join'd according to the Holy Language of the old Li­turgies▪ [...], Holy Things Liturgi [...] S S. Basilii & Chryso­stomi. to Holy Things, Holy Hearts to Ho­ly Ordinances.

And here appears, like a good Angell, the reason why we are for­mally [Page 104] reconciled to God after actuall sin, by Repentance, and by no other Vertue, or performance. Which is: Because in our actuall sinning, the Soule consented to Evill: and Re­pentance only, is the formal rever­sing and cancelling of that consent, quantum ex parte voluntatis possibile est, as far as is possible on the wil's part: which, though it cannot fac­tum infectum reddere, undoe the thing done in respect of the Act, as being contradictory, and because the thing done hath a necessary connexion with the Time in which it was done; yet being a gracious will, doth unwill the former willing of sin, as throw­ing it forth by a contrary Act; and so doth Undo the thing done in respect of the Effect; and thereby, qualifies the Soul of an Adult for God's mer­cy in Christ, given by Baptism; of which, the peccaininous Will is not capable.

CHAP. XXIX.

YET, we may reasonably beleeve, that the Apostles Baptized ma­ny, who could neither actually Re­pent [Page 105] nor beleeve. Because they bapti­zed Families: as in the acts, Cornelius Act. 10. 47, 48. Act. 16. 15. Act. 16. 33. Act. 18. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 16. with his Houshold; Lydia and her Houshold; the Jailor and all his; Crispus and all his House; And St Paul saith: I Baptized also the House­hold of Stephanus.

I shall not urge here, the Probabi­lity of there being Children in these Housholds, and surrender this Houshold-hold with reserving only an Argument à Probabili. But I will boldly maintain these House-Garri­sons, even by little Infants; and pronounce, that he who will secure­ly follow this President, must Bap­tize Housholds; and that he who followes the President of Baptizing Housholds, in the which there is no Verbal or Consequentiall Exclusion of children, must Baptize children, hou­sholds benig ordinarily recruted w ^th Children: And that therefore, exem­pli gratiâ, I being called to an House, whereof all are already Baptized except a Child or Children; to cor­respond with these Apostolicall Pat­terns of Baptizing Housholds, must Baptize the Child or Children: Ex­cept I will magnifie certaine perio­dicall [Page 106] and stationary Times in respect of the Spirituall Kingdome of Christ, as they are multiplied by the Astro­logers Astrologi. in respect of temporall King­domes. And that if the Apostles did not Baptize Children; the defect was not on the part of their Intenti­on, which was Habituall and Hypo­theticall even towards Infants, but because there were no Children in these Housholds; (which notwith­standing, would be most unreaso­nably said;) for, they aimed as they acted, and as the Text runs, to Baptize Housholds without excepti­on.

And if you except Infants, be­cause they be not expressely mentio­ned in Scripture; why are the A­postles admitted as Baptized Per­sons, the Baptizing of whom, Scrip­ture doth not any where mention: and the best written account of Euodius in Epist. quae inscribitur [...] Nic [...]ph. l. 2 Eccles. Hist. cap. 2. Euthym. in cap. 3. Joan­nis. which, we derive from Evodius, the Successour of St Peter in the Bishoprick of Antioch: who wri­teth, that of women, the Virgin Mother was only Baptized by Christ; of men, only Peter; and that Peter Baptized Andrew, James and [Page 107] John; and they, the rest of the A­postles ▪ The same Relation was af­terwards brought about againe by others, as by Nicephorus, Euthymi­us, &c.

In Verbo Sacerdotis Christiani: We Cabalistae must all be Caballists in some Sense, and receive with a plaudit the Di­stinction of the word of God into [...], written and un­written; and that some Truths were Apostolically given at the first, [...], besides the pen & Paper: which Distinction moreover, I know not how to call Distinctionem Generis in Species, but rather Subjecti in Ac­cidentia; because the Scription, as also the Orall Communication of it, is purely accidentall: and we might have received it as Verbum Mentis, or Verbum Dei in Mente, the Word of God in the Minde; after the pri­mitive manner of Reception: Nei­ther know I how to say, that the Things understood by the Members of this Distinction, do really dif­fer.

The Text in the History of the Jailor: And they spake unto him the Act. 16. 32. Word of the Lord, and to all that were [Page 108] in his house: is to be understood, to all in his house that understood the Word: And of the Text, Beleeving Verse. 34. in God with all his House, the Sense is; all in the House that could Be­leeve, Beleeved: And: the House of 1 Cor. 16. 15. Stephanus addicted themselves to the Ministery of the Saints: that is: all of the House that could so addict them­selves. For: Propositio quae affir­mat Hurtado in Logica. vel subinfort rem impossibilem, non est Vera: The Proposition affir­ming or inferring an impossible Thing, is not true, And figurative Expressions admitting such limita­tions, are very common in all Histo­ricall Narrations.

Yea, this very limitation must likewise be taken home into the Narration, that the Apostles Bapti­zed Housholds; the Sense being, Baptized all in the Housholds, capable of Baptism; which capability, we prove to be in Children. And there­fore, I say again: and I must, and will say it: Take him Jaylor.

O how the dirty Camel, that Franzius [...] Plutarcho & aliis. thinks not the Water fit for his, or any good use, except he trouble and muddy-make it with his own dirty feet!

CHAP. XXX.

THE fourth Objection breaks in upon us. Baptism is not com­mended or intended in the Text: Be­cause the Baptism only now in force, was John's Baptism; and Christ should here transforme him­selfe into a Minister of Johns Bap­tism, which would be incongru­ous.

This Objection supposes a wide difference betwixt John's Baptism and the Baptism of Christ; unto which, I give a Transeat without murmuring. John verily Baptized Acts 19. 4. with the Baptism of Repentance: that is: Baptismo qui erat Symbolum, ex­citatio & Protestatio Poenitentiae, ad remissionem Peccatorum Baptismo Christi recipiendam: With the Bap­tism which was a Symboll, excita­tion and Protestation of Repentance for the remission of sins to be received by Christ's Baptism.

Hence it runs directly without a By as in the eyes of unbyassed Judg­ments; that Infants, and Children void of actuall Reason and un­capable [Page 110] of Repentance, were not Baptized with the Baptism of John: But the Baptism of Christ is given to Infants for the remission of Origi­nall sin.

The Text proceeds: Saying unto the People, that they should beleeve on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. From this Holy Declaration, St Ambrose, St S Ambrose lib. 1. de spi­ritu sancto, cap. 3. S Hierom in Joelis c. 2. Petrus Lombar­dus. D. Tho. Bona­ventura, Palacius & alii, in l. 4. Sentent­arum, D [...]st. 2. Hugo de sancto vi­ctore, lib. 2. de Sacra­mentis, par. 6. cap. 6. Palac. ibid. Hierom, the Master of the Senten­ces, Thomas Aquinas, Hugo de san­cto Victore, Bonaventure, Palacius, and others, extract; That this was the Form of John's Baptism, Ego te Baptizo in nomine Venturi Messiae, vel, in eum qui Venturus est, ut credas: I Baptize thee in the Name of the Messias to come, or, into him who is to come, that thou maiest Beleeve in him. And when he baptized Christ, saith Palacius, he used this Form, Ego te Baptizo in Nomine tuo, qui Ven­turus es, I Baptize thee in thy own Name, or, in the Name of thy Selfe who art to come. And as the Person was extraordinary and singular; so also was the Form of Baptization, and indeed the Baptism, singular and extraordinary: Because it was [Page 111] not to Christ, as to others, Baptismus poenitentiae, the Baptism of Repentance.

And the next Verse presently starts another difference betwixt these Baptisms: When they heard this, they were Baptized in the Name Act. 19. 5. of the Lord Jesus. For: the Baptism of Christ cannot be iterated, in re­gard of the Character; but the Bap­tized of John, were Baptized againe by the Apostles. Wherefore John faith of Christ: he shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Mat. 3. 11 The Vulgar: Ipse vos Baptizabit in Spiritu sancto & igni. So the Greek. Lectio Vul­gat. Text. Graec, [...], he shall Baptize you in the Holy Ghost, and in fire. And so moves the Syriack, Arabick, Persick, Egyptiack. Syrus In­terp. Evangeli­um Arabi­cum, Persi­cum Aegyp­tiacum, Ae­thiopicum. or Coptick, and the Ethiopick.

The words in their sense, flow thus my Baptism is preparatory as the cō ­mon use of Water is: but the Bap­tism of Christ is in Spirit-power, and fiery-natur'd: And by▪ how much Fire is more active and efficacious than water, by so much the Baptism of Christ is more empowred than my Baptism: Fire fires, inflames, enlightens, purges, carries upwards, [Page 112] changes into it selfe: all which, the Baptism of Christ doth; Habitu, Actu, Effectu, vel Aptitudine, by Habit, Act, Effect, or Aptitude, in convenient Subjects.

CHAP. XXXI.

THis given pro concesso, for a thing granted, on both sides: My answer may be: These words were said to Nicodemus, by a Pro­lepsis or Anticipation of Time; as the most Noble Things are deliver'd in Scripture.

And let our young Hoop-Master be admonished, that, as I for­merly denyed Figure flinging in a plain Text, so neither doe I enter­taine a Prolepsis here, as Figuram Dictionis aut Sententiae, a Figure of Word or Sentence; but only, as a Fi­gure in the Circumstance of Time; which is outward in respect of the Words or Things.

The Baptism of John was, as his Office, preparatory; and as his cry: Prepare ye the way of the Lord. So Mat. 3. 3. were the old Ceremonies in respect of Christ and the Gospell. And yet, [Page 113] Christ was preached in most full and high Terms; the Validity of the Ceremonies yet standing in its full Heigth. Unto us a Child is born, un­to Isa 9. 6. Text. Hebr. us a Sonne is given. In the Origi­nall; Praeteritum Tempus ponitur pro futuro, the Time past or past Tense is put for the Time to come or future Tense: Which is exactly recounted Sept. by the Septuagint; [...], A Boy hath been born to us, a Son hath been gi­ven to us. And this was fairly done by the Figure Prolepsis: though in it selfe, it be rather Evangelicall, than Propheticall. And though the Expression be free-born in the Ori­ginall; and propose to us, that the Child shall as surely be born and gi­ven, as if he were already given and born: Yet the Figure stands immo­veably; Figures in all our Langus­ges, being often wedg'd into Idioms: as here the Prolepsis is not meerly circumstantiall, but looks inwardly, to keep the Sense straight.

But I have a strong reserve. For: The Baptism of Christ was also now in force. See John. 3. 26. and John 4. 1.

How strongly do these Argu­ments recoil upon our Adversary, their Answers being fitted to them? And how grosse and supine Igno­rance do they suppose in him, both of Scripture and Arts?

This empty Anabaptist, having publikely disputed away the Univer­sity, that is, renounced the Univer­sity in his Disputation, and done pub­like Pennance for his inward ac­quaintance with her; never thriv'd afterwards: and retains nothing now, of Name or Thing, but a meer presentation of Surface-Learning: and forgets that in the old Law, the hands of the Priests were filled in their Ordination, to signify, that they were ordained to fill the Eares and Hearts of the People, with Truth and sound Knowledge; not with Falsehood, and clotted, clou­ted, unreasonable, unseasonable An­swers.

But although he be little▪ consi­derable, yet his rashneste may hap­pily prove the unhappily-happy Occasion of much good; and many seduced People may now bring neer to the Eye, their own Errour.

Trithemius Chronicles a Jew na­med Trithem. in Chron. Anno 876. Sedechias, and reports him for his honour, to have been sometimes Physitian to Lewes the Emperour: Who being a Sorcerer, devoured in the sight and perswasion of many Princes and their Followers, a Cart loaden with (unchopt) Hay; not abstaining either from the Horses or the poor Carter: Also, an armed Man, his Horse and Harnesse. Yet, the Mist being recall'd; the Coun­try-Man, and Man in Arms, and all their Goods were made good a­gaine. These Devourers of Souls, may in God's good time, disgorge againe these Ignorant Country-Peo­ple; and themselves return to their old sucking a Paw or a Claw, as the Bear or Polypus.

CHAP. XXXII.

HIs fifth Objection holds up the Head. There is no Man of late, who hath made use of this Text in the Proof of Baptism, but the Pa­pists: and Bellarmin himselfe re­ceives it not as conducing to such proof: nor any of the Ancients.

I answer. Horum Omnium Con­traria vera sunt: The Contraries of Dr Featly in his Dip­per dipt. Bellarum. l. 1. de Sacra­mento Bap­tismi, cap. 4. Idem facit Eodem in li­bro. cap. 8. Bellarm. l. 2. de Essectu Sacramen­torum, c. 3. all these Things are true. Dr Featly hath used this very Text in the de­fence of Paedobaptism. Bellarmin chiefly builds upon it in this Matter: proving the necessity of Baptism from the necessary meaning of this Text, iterùm iterúmque, againe and againe. Likewise: the same Bellar­min hath brought together the solid Testimonies of fifteen most appro­ved Doctors and ancient Fathers, who all understand by the water in the Text, not the Word, or any o­ther like Thing, but the Water of Baptism. The words of Bellarmin are these: Omnes Scriptores hacte­nùs hunc locum intellexerunt de Bap­tismo; ut Justinus Apolog. 2. Tertullianus in lib. de Baptismo: Cy­prianus lib. 3. ad Quirinum, cap. 25. Ambrosius lib. 3. de Spiritu Sancto, cap. 11. Hieronymus in cap. 16. Eze­chielis: item Basilius, Gregorius Nazianzenus, Gregorius▪ Nyssenus in Sermonibus de Baptismo: Deni­que omnes Interpretes hujus loci Ori­genes, Chrysostomus, Augustinus, Cy­rillus, Beda, Theophylac [...]us, Euthy­mins, & alij.

O God, before whom we shall stand at the last Day; how confi­dently, yea how impudently doe these Religious Rats looke out of their Holes, and mouth it concer­ning Protestant▪ Writers; concer­ning that good-liv'd Mirrour of En­cyclopedy, Bellarmine; and all the Ancients; and yet, relying upon I know not what Perfugium Sorici­num, Rat-Hole by which to escape, utter not one true word!

Beyond this. St Ambrose wri­ting S Ambrose lib. 10. E­pist 84. ad Demetria­dem Virgi­nem. Janse­nius Harm. in Evang. cap. 20. S Chrysost. Hom. super▪ Nisi quis renatus suc­rit, &c. Perlege D. Tho. p. 3. q. 66, 67, 68. to a Virgin, expressely affirms Paedobaptism to be the Constitution of our Saviour, and erects his Pillar­proof on these words, Nisi quis re­natus fuerit, &c. except one be born, &c. See Jansenius in his Evangeli­call Harmony. St John Chrysostom not onely Interprets the words for Baptism; but also dignifies a famous Homily, by making them the Sub­ject of it; wherein he carries all be­fore him for the Baptism of Infants. Aquinas is of the same Judge­ment.

Now indeed, one would think, a man might in reason give credit as soon almost to this reverend Squa­dron [Page 118] of Worthies, St Justin, Ter­tullian, St Cyprian, St Ambrose, St Hierom, St Basil, St Gregory Na­zianzen, St Gregory Nyssen, Origen, St Chysostom, St Austin, St Cyril, Venerable Bede, Theophylact, Euthy­mius; I mean, to all these in the Com­plex: as to one, lone, lean, leaden, Pagnel-Saint in the Country.

Shall a young barefac'd dough-bak'd Dwarfe of March pane, be much more priviledg'd because he is de­voted to an old Woman, than these walking Libraries wedded to the ancient Church?

And now in the revolution of my Thoughts, why may we not en­counter him with three of these, be­ing Latine Fathers, and three of the Greek Church? Why should we mu­ster up fifteen at once?

Nay verily, now I fetch the cud a­bout againe: why may not single St Austin take him up, and throw him down? St Austin was a Godly Man, and somewhat learned.

CHAP. XXXIII.

BUt the Papists use this Text for Baptism: ther's the grand Ul­cer.

The best Divines concentre in this: That the very Devils may per­forme Acts morally good: and that the Pagans, and the most obstinate Hereticks have sometimes wrought Miracles: and that there was never any Arch-Heretick, which did not maintaine some Truths, and rightly, according to the Rules of Morall Rectitude, defend them by Scrip­ture. And yet now the Papists (concerning whom it hath been ge­nerally beleeved in England, after some evaporations and ebullitions of heat and passion; that they are a part of the true Church, though a corrupted one; and that many mil­lions of them are sayed:) may not beleeve any Truths; and as belee­ved by them, justly prop them with Scripture. A sad case: but f [...] ­ctitious, and absque Fundamento in Re.

In the place of, Sun, stand thou Jos. 10. 11 [Page 120] still: or, as the Vulgar, Sol non mo­vearis, Interp. vulgat. Text. Hebr: Sun, be not moved: the He­brew gives up, Sol, tace; Sun, hold thy peace, or, be silent. For which cause Rabbi Salomon gave it forth R. Salom. in hunc locum. for Doctrine as clear as the Sun, that the Sun daily sings Hymns, & sweet­ly sings them in the praise of God: from the which his sweet Hymn­singing he ceased at the command of Joshua. The Rabbin seems to run after the Platonick Philosophers, who with their nimble-finger'd thoughts did set singng Syrens in the Celestiall Orbs. Be silent, be still, or, hold thy peace, is, in Originall significati­on, stand still, rest, or be quiet: and the Catachresis or abuse of Speech, is frequent in the Hebrew Language. Now as it is the same Thing in the Sun, to stand still and to hold his peace: So shall I construe it, one and the same in me who should be the Light of the World, to hold my peace, and to stand still. Which yet, I may not, untill com­manded by Joshua or Jesus: who likewise never commands us to hold our peace, for the concealement of God's praises, which are then sung [Page 121] alowd when oppressed Truth is re­lieved. Wherefore Joshua chose the Sun for the Subject of his Miracle, because the Sun was the God of the Amorites; and the praises of God were sung in a most high and hea­venly Song, when a Servant of the true God, commanded this their false God to stand still or hold his peace and see his worshippers over­thrown.

Thus therefore. The Cosmogra­phers Cosmogr [...] ­p [...]i. inform us, that there is more Sea in the Western, than in the East­ern Hemisphere: and if they doe not know it, I now inform them, that there are also more Ebbings and Flowings, more water-Tempests, more Sea-alterations and wave­motions of Religion, in these our Western parts, than elswhere: And the Church of Rome holds Truth fast many Times, when others wretchedly betray it.

And I sincerely confesse, that e­ven in this Discourse, I walk, be­yond ordinary walkings, upon the Grounds of the Church of Rome; as being well assur'd, that these re­turn to the Adversary what is righ­teously [Page 122] due to him, and that none other will overturn him at every Turn, when he should be turn'd, re­turn'd, overturn'd.

CHAP. XXXIIII.

HAD my Adversary said, that many Papists have abused Scripture in the Sophisticall main­tenance of some ungrounded and Air-Castle Doctrines: I would have ran along with him heartily, and without any discomposing the pla­cid order of my Soul, and followed his Game, as he with Hoopings, so I with a Kennel of lowd Cryers.

Had he set up his cry against A­quinas his Doctrine (restored by D. Tha. part. 3. quaest. 25. art. 3. Bellarmin) in his question. Utrùm Image Christi sit a [...]oranda adoratio­ne latriae? Where he resolves, that the Image of Christ or a Crucifix maybe adored with the Adoration of [...], being a Worship due to God alone: I should have set up an outcry, and have cried out with him, O absurd! abominable! I would have answered to him with an ex­traordinary Eccho, that should have [Page 123] plainly repeated all his words; & ha­ving done my Eccho's part, would have begun and performed my own part by sound Proof: As: This Worship is abominable▪ and ab­surd; howsoever the Worshipfull Maintainers of it, crutch it up with the common distinction of ordinati­vè and terminativè, that is, with referring the Worship to the Proto­type, and not housiing it in the I­mage:

First: because the Worshipper, either gives divine Worship to the I­mage, or destroies [...], the very Thing in Question:

Secondly: because this Doctrine doth cast a foul dishonour upon the Humanity of Christ, and throwes the Businesse, as if there were as great an alliance, at the least in re­spect of outward Priviledges, be­twixt Christ and the Crucifix or I­mage of Christ, as betwixt the Son of God and his Humanity: for, nei­ther is divine Worship terminated in the Humanity of Christ.

Thirdly: because Acts of divine Worship are from necessary Injuncti­ons, and rely upon Principles which [Page 124] are aeternae Veritatis, of eternall Truth, or, true at all times: but it lies howsoever, in the free plea­sure of Men, whether or no they will accept such an Image as an Image of of Christ to such Adoration; and consequently if they doe, such A­doration is not proposed as necessary.

Fourthly: because the common People, being the greatest, part of Worshippers, who are most effica­ciously tutor'd by Sense, can hardly reach in this case without confessed Idol-Worship, to so nice an Act of Distinction betwixt Ordination and Termination in the Worship of [...], wherein they doe [...], actually give divine Worship due only to God, to the Creature and to the Creator by one and the same Simple and un­divided Act; and though the Crea­tor be first, and inwardly intended, yet even divine worship is out ward­ly given and impended to the Crea­ture:

Fiftly: because divine Worship is never given except under the strict Bond of the Hypostaticall Union, to a Thing propter aliud: but always prop­ter se; as being altogether incommu­nicable; [Page 125] & communicable Things only, are given propter aliud: and therefore Christ repels and convinces the Devill out of Deutoronomy, with Mat. 4. 10. the Law of Worship imposed upon Mankinde; [...], him onely shalt thou serve with the Service or Worship of [...].

Lastly: Because this Doctrine is patched up of insolent and seanda­lous Terms, and sounds offensively; which should be avoided as being justly grievous to chast and pious Aelian. in Hist Animal. Eares: And, in fit comparison, is like the Head of the Frog that Elian saw as he was travelling from Na­ples to Puteoli, which drew a Bo­dy of shap'd dirt after it.

And again: I would have decla­r'd: that this idle Idolillo-doting is abhorred by the most conscientious and most learned of their own Bish­ops. As: to prefer an example: The People in certain parts of Spain, namely, Cantabria, Galetia, &c. were so deeply enamour'd on their old, maimed, deformed, and worm­eaten Images, and which the Ver­minous Hierony­mus Lamas in Sum. p. 3. cap. 3. Rats had gnawn out of shape; that, as he witnesses who [Page 126] was an Eye-witnesse, when, by the command of the Bishops, they were at length removed, and Images of decent composure placed, accor­ding to the Method of Rome, in their rooms: the ignorant Spani­ards, Men and Women, young and old, and of all sizes, put their fore­fingers in their eies; and like children having lost their beloved Bables, or their Deos rurales, country-Gods; cri­ed lamentably (poor Seniors & Senio­ras) for their old Images againe; they would not have new ones: and this, even since the Councill of Trent, and the many great complaints there.

CHAP. XXXV.

HAD my Adversary said, that many Papists have misled Scripture in their inconsiderate la­bouring to prove, the single Life of Priests to be from divine Command; I would have joyned Hands and Hearts with him; and have di [...]moun­ted the Papists from the figurative 1 Tim. 3. 2. Sense of the Text. A Bishop must be blamelesse, the Husband of one Wife; after the very same fashion▪ as I now unsaddle the Anabaptists from the Text in hand, by keeping him to the [Page 127] Letter. And I should not have rested there; but have argued fur­ther, out of my own Treasure.

First: The boldnesse of tainting this holy Scripture, hath been un­fortunate, as in other places, so at London: For: when John, Cardi­nast Mat. Paris lib. 7. p. 219. of Cremen, in a London-Councill, had leven'd his Oration with a med­ly to this purpose, he was found at night by the queint disposition of divine Providence, notwithstanding his divine Speech and the Divine Command they prophanely recom­mend to us, in bed with a whore: and though he had been received with great Pomp and Honour, he now tuck'd up his long Traine of Scarlet, and stole away in a Mist; leaving, as the Devill commonly does when he disappeares, a poiso­nous and abominable stink behind him of a whore and a whore-ma­ster:

Secondly: I have discovered by reading▪ that when the Christians besieged Ptolemais, they tooke a Aldrovan­dus P [...]ole­gom. in Ornithol. ex Egnatio. weary Dove which brought a Let­ter from the Sultan directed to the Besieged; and by letting the Dove [Page 128] fly into the City with a new Letter of their own composing, moved the Citizens to Dedition, and gai­ned the City: But I could never dis­cover by reading or other industry, that the Letter which the Holy Ghost, the Dove of Heaven, brought from Heaven, can be changed or altered by Christians upon Earth: And had we been commanded to marry in the words, Increase and multiply, and consequently, sinned if we had not married; or, had the words, the husband of one Wife ob­liged the Bishop to marriage, and not inferred only a strict exclusion of Polygamy, whether taken in the venerable Sense of Jewish Antiqui­ty, or in the construction of the Greek Church; it would have sorely trou­bled the Church of Rome, to have learnedly pretended the setting of an Ecclesiasticall Constitution as a firme obstacle against a divine Com­mand:

Thirdly: It is not probable, that a divine Constitution can be repug­nant with Marriage, first ordained in our most divine state of Innocency, and first celebrated in Paradise the [Page 129] most Divine Place upon Earth:

Fourthly: If it be a divine Consti­stution which abrogates the marri­age of Priests, how is it faire, that the Vicegerent, having a de­legated and subordinate Power, and acting for God, doth not Act accor­ding to his Delegation and Instru­ment, but dispenses oftentimes in a Superiour and explieit Constitution of his divine Master?

Lastly: where shall we finde a divine Constitution opposed so large­ly against the Intention and Institu­tion of Nature in the Species, espe­cially in so high a Kinde as this of Mankinde; and Marriage being or­dained, by a second Ordination of Providence, as a Remedy against the vile productions of Lust?

CHAP. XXXVI.

HAD my Adversary said, that some Papists have wrested Scriptures in arresting them to justi­fy the Latin▪ Prayers, even of the most ignorant People among them: I should have stood for him, and se­conded his endeavours:

First: because the Definition of Prayer which the Schooles have re­ceived from St John Damascen, is, S. Jo. Dam. l. 3. d [...] Fide Orthodoxa, cap. 24. [...], the Ascent of the Mind or Understanding to God: And the Understanding or Minde cannot ascend to God in re­ligious Prayer, being an humble and petitionary Ascent of the Understan­ding and Will, moving God to As­sent by a knowing, reverentially-be­comming, and attentive Presentation of our just Desires; except the Pray­er be offered with Understanding:

Secondly: Because though we should in our Prayer, sometimes at­tend to God to whom we pray, and sometimes to the Thing for which we pray: yet, if the Prayer be not Understood, our Lip-offering would be a Tempting of God, when so near and fair a Meanes and Help of Pray­ing after the best manner, is obsti­nately rejected:

Thirdly: Because God requires our Offerings to be proportioned to our Abilities; and he hath made us understanding and reasonable Crea­tures; and requires therefore of us, reasonable Service, and to pray with Rom. 12. 1. 1 Cor. 14. 15. Understanding:

Fourthly: Because if there be such need of the outward Picture, to prevent distraction; there is much more need of the inward Pictures, which the words present like the turning of the Heavenly Spheres, for the same end.

Fiftly: Because there should be nothing uselesse or vain in our Com­merse and Conversation with God; but the Words in such Prayers are vain and uselesse: God accepting not of Things which are foolishly, ignorantly, and indevoutly presen­ted; and words not understood, being presented indevoutly, igno­rantly, foolishly.

Sixtly: Because those who pray thus, are not conform'd to the Church, as ignorant Priests, and Sacerdotes ad Missam, teach and pretend, ex­cept they will as ignorantly grant, that the Church to which they are conformed, prayes without under­standing:

Lastly: Because the famous Par­rat of Cardinall Ascanius, which Coeliu [...] Rhodig. de antiquis Lectioniq. l. 3. cap. 32. distinctly and with seeming devoti­on oftentimes recited the Creed, prayed, or said part of the divine [Page 132] Office, as religiously, with relation to understanding the Prayer, and outward appearance, as these misun­derstanding People: For: the Par­rat recited many good words (which it understood not) in their order; because it had the Species of those Words, connexed in the Imagina­tive Power: And these Parrat-Christians ex Regione P [...]sittacorum, recite their Latine Prayers; as ha­ving the words concatenated in their Memories, or because they reade them.

CHAP. XXXVII.

HAD my Adversary said, that Scripture hath been storm'd by Papists, to exalt the Pope in certain undue Kindes of Greatnesse, Power, and Titles: I should have presently come at the Call, and have brought Victory and Victoria with me: who having quilted his Discourse with a long Narration of the Pope's impro­per Titles, Power and Greatnesse, uncreates him againe with refe­rence to such Greatnesse, Power and Titles; and undoes all with a Ca­tastrophe: [Page 133] Sed Glossatores Juris hoc Victoria de Potest. Eccl. Relect. 1. Sect. 6. Dominium dederunt Papae, cùm ipsi essent pauperes Rebus & Doctrinâ: But the Canonists or Glossators of the Positive Right or Canon Law, gave this Dominion to the Pope; themselves being poore with respect both to Riches and Learning. And I should have added this Graine or two ex meo: From their poor con­dition and Poverty, came their poor-conditioned Flattery; and from their Ignorance, their blind asserting of those Things which they did not understand.

Verily, I should have been fami­liar with my Adversary; and said: Sir: There hath been a question conjur'd up from Hell: Uirùm Papa possit voca [...]d Deus? Whether or no the Name, God, may be given to the Pope? And though the Term, God, in the Question, opens the arms to receive a Distinction, and by consequence a Decision; and may be understood, either secundùm Naturam, accor­ding to Nature, or secundùm Simi­litudinem, according to Likenesse; and the Pope may be called Deus secun­dùm Similitudinem, God according [Page 134] to Likenesse; as the Angels, yea Men, and Judges especially, are honoura­bly called Elohim in scripture: yet, the Question is unexpedient, irrele­gious, and unsufferably-swelling, as concerning the Pope.

First: because this high pretence to earthly Greatnesse, is directly opposite to Christ, who is the gene­rally-confessed Head of the Church; appearing upon Earth in the form of Phil. 2. 7. a Servant. And therefore, When John Arch-Bishop of Constantinople vainly pretended to glorious Titles above him; St Gregory Bishop of Rome, pulled the other way, and stiled himselfe Servum Servorum Dei, a Servant of the Servants of God:

Secondly: because a meer Man, and one who is not infallible or unerring in his particular actions concerning himselfe; is quickly puffed up with such Titles:

Thirdly: because People who de­pend upon the Favours of Princes, are soon intoxicated with opinion of the pretended Rights and Great­nesse of those upon whom their Ho­nours and Profits depend; all the [Page 135] Passions running as Love runs:

Fourthly: because such Questions and Titles render the Pope most odious, ridiculous and contempti­ble to all his Adversaries, confessing, or denying Christ; and are the cause that his Adversaries confessing Christ, doe, according to his Prin­ciples, the lesse confesse him; and that his Adversaries denying Christ, deny him the more:

Fiftly: because the Angels were thrown from Heaven, and Man out of Paradise, by desiring to be as God:

And lastly: Because the speciall raising of this Question concerning the Pope by his Parasites, is a nota­ble signe, that the Aim was direct­ed beyond the Bounds of Likenesse; and overlooked, yea and overwent the Question proposed concerning Bishops, Princes, Judges, or other Magistrates, in a strange untrodden Course.

CHAP. XXXVIII.

HAD my Adversary said, that Scripture hath been ravished by Papists, to prefer the impious Art [Page 136] of pious Fraud; which hath much thrived, grown fat, and prevailed amongst them: I should have said as my Adversary said: and have strongly proved it:

First; by the Testimony of their Nicol. Lyra Comment. in cap. 14. Dan, secun­dùm, Edit. Vul­gat. Nicolaus Lyra: Aliquandò in Eccle­sia fit maxima Deceptio Populi in Miraculis factis à Sacerdotibus, vel eis adhaerentibus propter Lucrum: Sometimes the People are very great­ly deluded in the Church, by forged Miracles; the Priests or their Adhe­rents forging them for gain.

Secondly; by the Authority of their own Alexander Hales: In Alex Ha­lens. p. 4 q. 53. Me [...]b. 4. art. 3. Solut. 2. Sacramento apparet Caro, interdùm humanâ procuratione, interdùm o­peratione Diabolicâ: Flesh appeares in the Sacrament, sometimes by hu­mane Procuration, and sometimes by Diabolicall Operation: the Priests and the Devill doing the same work fraudulently; and the Devill, what­soever the Priests may pretend, al­wayes working for an Evill end:

And thirdly, by the infallible Sen­tence, [...] Cl mentis O [...]vi transmis­sum ad Re­gula [...]es. and most known Precept of their own dear Clement the Eighth, commanding the Regulars to sur­cease [Page 137] from the deceitfull and frau­dulent Abuse of their Knowledge acquired in Confessions, by the which they made them burdensome, to promote their own advantage in their outward Government. And ha­ving proved the Things, I should have strongly and boldly proved a­gainst the lawfullnesse of them, (of these their pious Frauds:)

First: because all proper Meanes are naturally suteable to the End; and if the End be good, the Meanes must be proportionably good; and if the Truth of God published, be the End; the Meanes of Publication must be true, void of deceit, and godly:

Secondly: because by fraudulent carriages in the way to our good Ends, a vile aspersion is cast upon the Providence of God; as if good Meanes were not adequately prepa­red by divine Providence for good Ends:

Thirdly: because by such fraudulent Conveyances in holy Things, holy Things ( in direct motion and issue and not per accidens) are disestee­med; the most excellent Truths of God question'd; and Men become [Page 138] [...]; without God, and Atheisti­call.

Fourthly: because as evill produ­ces evill, and false Actions produce false speeches in the same Subject; so, much deceit of the Tongue, is pro­duced by this deceit of the Heart and action, before and after it; as, pernicious Lying, impertinent Equivocation, multiplication of idle Words.

And lastly: Because the Devill is the Father of Lies, and of double dealing; and the old heathenish Priests, his impious Instruments, were expert in reducing to praxis this pious Art: the Holy Ghost is the Author of all Truth, and of Holy simplicity.

Therefore these being so diffe­rent in their Causes, Meanes, Ends, may not be joyned in their Terms and Logicall Predications; and fraud cannot be pious, nor piety fraudulent.

CHAP. XXXIX.

HAD my Adversary said, that Scripture hath been prostituted by some Papists, to sanctify the li­centiated [Page 139] Stews at Rome: I should have come to his hand, as a Hauke to the Lure, and zealously protested against them.

First: because the Evill in this Permission, doth infinitely surmount and preponderate the Good; as ap­peares by the consequents; more by thousands, being incouraged in this permission, to the most grie­vous Commissions of Adultery, For­nication, and other Uncleannesse, than the Good is or can be that the filth and stinke of the common sinke is restrained from certaine Hou­ses.

Secondly: because the filth might be more perfectly restrained by se­vere Lawes and a Coercive Pow­er.

Thirdly: this publike permission of the Stews, is not like the permission of Usury; because in Fornication, Adultery, &c. the Actors, both sin; but in Usury, the Taker or Borrow­er, (upon whom he that permitteth Usury, keeps the single Eye of his Intention,) Sinneth not; his Concur­rence being materiall not formall, and he not willing but un willing:

Fourthly: because God hath dea­lings towards sin, before the Com­mission; prohibendo, by forbidding it; impediendo, by hindering it; permit­tendo, by suffering it; as after the Commission, ordinando ad bonum, by actuall and executionall ordering it to good; ignoscendo, by pardoning it; puniendo, by punishing it: and this Permission of the Stews, is larger than the divine Permission in such a latitude; for, God sometimes in all places, absolutely hindereth sin; but in the Reign of this Permission of sin by the Romanists, there is no ab­solute hinderance, there being so much of furtherance, on their parts; and there is but a dull, cool and weak prohibition in consideration of penalties to be inflicted upon sense; and these only of all humane Acts, work effectually upon a Soul stee­ped in the Lees of corrupt Nature:

Fiftly: because this permission proves a double Allurement to the single Clergy:

Lastly: because the Jews there, are greatly disturb'd and nardened by this Permission.

And I should have garnished this [Page 141] Reason with a prevalent Example, commended to Eternity by Bishop Espenceus; who relates of a Jewish Maid, that she renounced the Jew­ish Religion and became a Chri­stian, that she might freely exercise the Romish-Christian Art of Ribau­derie, not unsoundly permitted, as amongst Christians, but soundly pu­nished by the Jews. And the Bish­op bewailes the sadnesse of the mat­ter, with many a mournfull Accent: Dici nequit, quàm incredibili Chri­stianorum Esp [...]ncaeus de Contin l. 3. cap 4. tum pudore, tum etiam eo­rum qui verè tales sunt, cordolio, fa­ctum est, ut Judae filiae scort [...]rs non liceat, Dei filiae liceat: Imò Israelis filia meretricari non aliter ante possit, quàm facta per Baptismum sanctum Christi soror, & filia: It cannot be said, with what incredible shame of Christians, and also with what heart­griefe of such as are truly such, it is come to passe, that a Jewish Daugh­ter may not become Whore, a Daugh­ter of God may: Yea that a Daugh­ter of Israell, cannot otherwise play the Harlot, than when she is made by Holy Baptism, the Sister and Daugh­ter of Christ.

She was made so quoad externan [...] apparentiam, according to outward ap­pearance; and she had been really made so, remotis impedimentis ex parte Subjecti, had the impediments been removed on the part of the Sub­ject.

CHAP. XL.

ROme: I Honour thee in thy Truths: which are many, and excellently obeyed by many. But I detest thy Corruptions: and I see a large Field before me, and could proceed farther against them, should I not wander beyond the Lines of Communication with my Matter.

Finally therefore: Had my Ad­versary said, that the Scriptures have been rifled, spoil'd, exanimated and murthered by some Papists of the Jesuiticall Division, to set aloft the Scarlet-coloured practise of the mur­dering of Princes in the dark, by private and obscure Persons: I should have cried Murder, and Treason too: and have fortified my selfe in the Preamble, with the forerunning [Page 143] History of the preposterously-He­roicall M. Claudi­us Paradi­nus in He­roïcis. Courtier of Millain, Andreas Lampugnanus; who when he de­sired to Murther Galeazus Marius the Millain-Duke, for a Tyrant; did practise it▪ long before, by stab­bing privately the Duke's Image; that his hand might not shake, or he misse his aim in his stabbing the Duke: whom at last, he stabb'd to the Heart, even before the Altar, in a Church. O the Purity of this Duke-stabbing under the roof of the Temple and the white Canopy of Holinesse!

There wants nothing to the top and top-gallant of this Angelicall Devilishnesse, but the presenting of the poison'd Sacrament to a de­vout Emperour on his Knees: which likewise, they have devoutly done:

I would have open'd the door to Jesuiticall examples, and let them [...]orth tumbling one over another, like the Waves in a foul & troubled Sea: As: of Garnet and Oldcorn, Jesu­ites, and chiefe Actors in the match­lesse Powder Treason; who are English Martyrologe printed in the year, 1608. Chronicled for Martyrs: of Sixtus Quintus a Favourer and Patron of [Page 144] the Jesuites, who consecrated a Panegyricall Oration to the immor­tall praise of Clement the Jacobin Fryer, that Murthered Henry the third, King of France, by searching into his Belly with a religious knife: And of Barrier, who endeavoured Arnault [...] Frenchman, in his Plea­dings against the Jesuites, on the behalfe of the King and Parlia­ment of France. the killing of Henry the fourth, with a poisoned Altar-Dagger; (which Raviliach afterwards expe­dited;) animated thereunto by holy Father Varad a Jesuite.

And I should have sifted the O­riginall Question: An Deus dispen­sare possit in Lege Nature vel De­calogi? Can God (the Pope's Lord) dispense in the Law of Nature or the Decalogue? Wherein Occam, Ger­son, Occam. in. 2. q. 19. ad 3. &. 4. dub. Gerson in Tract. de vita spiri­tali Lect. 1. Corol. 10. in Alphabeto 61. literâ E. Almainus Tract. 3. Morall. cap. 15. Scot. in 3. Distinct. 37. q. 1. paragra­pho, Hic di­citur. Bonavent. in 1. Dist­inct. 47. q▪ 4. Gabr. in 3. Dist. 37. q 1. Art. 2. Concl. 1. Durand. in 1. Dist. 47. q 4. num. 16. and Almain affirme, that he can dispense in every Law of the Decalogue: And their Foundation is: Every sin is a sin, because it is forbidden by the will of God; if therefore, God will a thing to be no sin, hoc ipso it shall not be a sin: And in the which Question, Scotus, Bonaventure, and Gabriel defend, that God can dispense in the Pre­cepts of the second Table, but not in the Precepts of the first Table: [Page 145] that is: can dispense in those com­mandements which manage us to­wards our Neighbour, but not in the Commandements which con­form us towards God: And in the which▪ Durandus declares, that God may dispense in the affirmative Precepts of the second Table, but not in the negative Precepts there­of.

And I should have determined, that God himselfe cannot dispense directly and formally in any Precept of the Law of Nature. The Reason is: Because the Lawes of Nature contain and command that which is good intrinsecally and in it's Nature; therefore the Things opposed to these Lawes, are in their Natures and intrinsecally Evill; and not be­cause they are prohibited by the will of God, but because of their own Natures, they are dissentaneous and contrary to Naturall Reason and rea­sonable Nature, quà talis est: As: possible Things are possible, not be­cause God hath willed them to be possible, but because it is not in it selfe Contradictory, that they may come into Being.

Wherefore God cannot make, ( pace Occami,) the Hatred of God to be Godly, good or Lawfull: be­cause this Turn of Things overturns all, and is contrary not only to Na­ture and Reason, but also, to the Divinity of God. And God cannot perswade us to these Evils; much lesse will them, command them to be, and make them good, lawfull and honest.

As therefore, the Creatures have their existence from the will of God, but their possibility from the very Nature of God; (because if we con­sider the Nature of God in his Omni­potency, it naturally followes and results, that there is a possibility of Things by Creation; which Things, if per impossibile God were not, were impossible:) So the positive Law, both Divine and Humane, depends upon the will of God; but the Law of Nature is derived from the Law Eternall in Mente Dei.

Yet, God can dispense indirectly and materially in these Lawes, by changing the matter of the Thing commanded, and thereby subtracting it from the Law of Nature and ob­ligation [Page 147] of the Decalogue. For: God can give to one Man, Power over the Goods, Body and Life of ano­ther.

But, when, where, or how did God give Power to the Church of Rome, over the Goods, Bodies, and Lifes of Princes? And if the Laity be subject to the Clergy, as the Bo­dy to the Soule: yet, the Soule hath not absolute Dominion over the Bo­dy; and therefore, may not lop off the Members, or pluck an eye out, having offended her, and cast it from her, otherwise than in a spirituall and morall Sense, the literall Sense being repugnant with other Pre­cepts: though shee may willingly suffer them, or, freely give them up, to be lopped off passively, in the Confession of the true Faith; or, sur­render the whole Body to be de­stroyed, in Martyrdome.

Desist then, O ye cruell Jesuites, from this your making odious the most acceptable Name of our most mild and meek Jesus.

CHAP. XLI.

BUT in regard it is onely Ob­jected by the Aduersary, that the Text ( Except one be born againe &c,) is used by the Papists: Per me liceat: They may use it, without opposition from me: their using a Text in a righteous manner and Matter, being no sufficient and rea­sonable Ground of Quarrell. As I may not quarrel with them, for their using sacred Scripture in the proof of the most sacerd Trinity against the old Arrians, & those of Transyluania: or in the proof of the Incernation of Christ, for the Prepossession and corroboration of Christians against the cursed Insinuations of Maho­met.

The Spirit of Contradiction and the works of it, are not unknown to my Adversary: And does he think, it would become me, to be like the Ilanders adjoyning unto China, who, by reason of some Traverses of dis­cord and jealousies (which often­times arise betwixt neighbouring Countries and Provinces) falling [Page 149] betwixt them and the Chinenses; sa­lute one another by putting off their shooes, because the men of China performe the morality of their Salutation by putting off their Hats?

The violent motions of spirit, Je­suiticall and Presbyterian, cannot be of God: in the long Catalogue of whose blessed works, their is no vio­lent Thing.

I would have the World to un­derstand, that I now understand the difference betwixt the Doct­rines which Pride and private Inte­rest have publikely raised in the Church of Rome, and which are not destructive of its being a Church; as the sins and errours of the Phari­sees, destroied not the Chair of Mo­ses: and the Doctrines of the Church of Rome, lineally descended from Apostolicall Antiquity, or included Virtually in their seed and root: And that my Quarrell is not with Truth or Integrity, but with the Corrup­tion of Integrity and Truth.

And in the Truth and Integrity of a sincere and unleven'd Soule: If I dye on my Bed, and with know­ledge [Page 150] of what I say and doe; some of my latest words on my Death-Bed, shall be these.

I most heartily deny, defy, re­nounce, abhor and protest against the Presumption, Pride and Avarice of Popes, their Nephews, and Cardi­nals; the deceitful Dealings of Priests, Jesuites, Monks and Friers, and against all their Doctrines which bear the true Marks and Hecceities of Corruption: But, all the Sacred Articles of Catholike and Apostolike Doctrine amongst the Papists, which they have faithfully conserved; all their well-ordered Zeale, their ad­mirable and most ravishing Devoti­ons, their Deiform Intentions, their Heroicall Acts of Vertue; their Ab­negations of themselves, and of their Friends, Goods and Pleasures; their Watchings, Fastings, Prayings; their Recollections, Meditations, Spiri­tuall Exercises, Introversions, Soli­loquies. Aspirations, and all the pretty-Love Actions of the Body that attend them; their Keeping of the Heart and Senses; their Humilia­tions, Mortifications, and Resig­nations of themselves, to the Will [Page 151] of God, come Riches or Poverty, Disgrace or Honour, Li [...]erty or Imprisonment, Sicknesse or Health, Life or Death; their sighings, sob­bings, yernings, and Groanings af­ter God; their appretiative Love of God, when they cry out, in the Sur­ges Psa. 73. 25. and high Sea of the Spirit; Whom have I in Heaven but thee? and there is none upon Earth that I desire be­sides thee; their intensive Love of God, when the Soule being returned from the Ravishments and ecstasies of Love, and the Body overcharged; the charge is jointly given. I charge you, Cant. 5. 8. O Daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of Love; or, as the Vulgar, Edit. vulg. quia amore Langueo, that I languish with Love; and afterwards, their dying, and giving up the Ghost in their vehement loving of God, and by the very force of it: I most humbly receive, imbrace, approve, with all my Soule, Heart and Spirit.

And I will never beleeve, that the Tree is corrupted in the Root, Heart and Substance, which brings forth such heavenly Fruit; especial­ly when I behold Trees, that are [Page 152] more promising and professing in their leafes and blossoms, but lesse performing in their fruit.

And I confesse humbly and sor­rowfully, as in the Presence of God and Man, that when I first came from the Papists, I was more, as it often happens in extraordinary Mutati­ons, fired on with Passion than sweetly drawn with Devotion.

But now I desire of God, that I may be seasoned with Moderation, and love in every place, what my experienced Soule tels me in the re­tiring-Chamber of my second and composed Thoughts, God loves and likes in all places.

We often deserve by our own Offences, that we take offence at the miscarriges of others; and re­ject in a lump the good with the evill.

A Scandall is defined: Verbum aut Factum minùs rectum aut bonum, praebens occasionem alteri Spiritualis ruinae aut lapsûs in peccatum: A word or Deed lesse right or good, giving occasion to another of Spirituall Ru­ine or Falling into sin. Where the Adverb, minùs, lesse, may not be ta­ken [Page 153] comparativè, sed negativè, com­paratively, but negatively, for a Word or Deed which is not good but evill: And the Evill may be intrin­secè, vel extrinsecè malum, intrinse­cally or extrinsecally evill: the evill intrinsecally evill is character'd in the precedent Chapter: the other is described; which hîc & nunc in respect of particular circumstances, of Time, Place or Persons, wants some Morall Rectitude or Goodnesse. The Active Scandall is subdivided in Scandalum per se & per Accidens, A Scandall by it selfe, and a Scandall by Accident; this hapning praeter inten­tionem Agentis, besides the inten­tion of the Agent.

God almighty graunt, I may be so absorpt in the profound Conside­ration of the Scandals which I have given, that I may only use the active Scandals of others as I would use a Marke of Caution, set neer or o­ver Vide Am­bros. Catha­rin. sib. de Propheti [...] Savonarolae, & Raphae­lem Volater. lib. 5. Geo­graph. in sine. a Rock. For it must needs be that offences come, in all Churches; and Papa Angelicus the Angelicall Pope and his Reformation already come in the Prophesies of Savonaerola, may not in reason be farther expected.

CHAP. XLII.

I Am now carried, as upon the Wings of Cherubims, to the maine drift of my Adversary in his last Ob­jection: which was: to bring an Odium upon me, and stigmatize me for a Papist. Hoop: do me no harm good Man.

I am verily perswaded, that there are of my kindred (being in part Jewish Presbyterians) who greatly desire to reinforce Popery upon me for secret Ends, which they have as they are [...], Lovers Text. G [...]aec. 2 Tim. 3. 2. of their own selves, and lovers of Mo­ny. And they Would perswade me into it, by long perswading me that I am of it: Which in truth, is a powerfull assault upon the will; as continually hammering the thing proposed, and the conveniences and friendly considerations of it, into the Heart. Upon this Assumption, (as commonly, a Man's Enemies are of his own Houshold,) they let fly their fancies by the Voley.

And therefore, as it was in the old Greek Litany, [...], Lit. Graec. [Page 155] [...]: From my selfe good Lord, de­liver me: And as it is in the Roman Orat. Rom [...] ­nae ad Pri­mam, & alibi: Prayers: De Inimicis nostris, libera nos, Deus noster: From our Enemies, deliver us, O our God: So my most hearty Prayer, shall ever be: Ab Amicis meis liberame, Domine De­us noster: From my Kindred deliver me, O Lord our God.

St Gregory Nazianzen objecteth S. Greg Naz. orat. 4. in Julian. against Julian; that his cheeks un­decently swelled, when in a Fume, he blew the Coles at the Devil's Altar with old women, enemies to the Truth of God and of Christ.

But: Mihi ab istis perquàm Vo­lupe est affligi: I take great pleasure in being afflicted and Crucified by these and the like Lumber: as, by other mercilesse Presbyterians, by wilfull Anabaptists, by the profane Regiment of loose, lewd, unjust, and unmoralliz'd Ministers: by the Satyr-Kinde of ignorant, phreneti­call, and powder-passion'd Papists, &c.

And here: I will answer punctu­ally. First: They call me Jesuit; And I call, not them, but the great Majesty of God to witnesse, against [Page 156] them: That I never was a Jesuit, nor a Lover of Jesuits.

Secondly: They Tare-sow among the People, that I am a professed Papist, and reconciled to my Priest­ly Functions: both which, are most false, the most true God knows.

O degenerating England: do'st thou thus poorly reward one that came to thee, as an humble Suppli­ant, in a Church-storm, for pious Harbour? one that hath sate peacea­bly under thy wings, and was ne­ver in Arms? One that, whatsoe­ver he writes to better his judge­ment, never preached ought thwar­ting the known Church of England; or gave passe to a word looking awry upon the State?

I humbly hope: that notwith­standing the various and easie Pre­tences of Worldly Policy; we are not as yet, Seducers, and righteously worthy of Silentiall Punishment, if we Preach against Anabaptism.

I am bold; and I cannot hold: because I never learned to be afraid in the defence of the mighty God's cause: And if I suffer, I shall suffer, the strong God looking upon me and [Page 157] strengtening me; and moreover, in the view of the Christian World: Many where­of, rejoice to hear and see me alrea­dy made a miserable Sufferer by my own dear Country-Men, to whom I have hopefully ran for Appeale and safety.

Now if any Romanist shall take of­fence at my taking and publishing these Offences; I shall joyfully enter the lists, even with him; and shall undertake to make the Offences I have taken, so numerous and so pon­derous that al the Catholike perfumers in the new Exchange, shal not be able to suppresse and pacify the stink rai­sed in the stirring of Romishpuddels.

In the mean time: all the world must grant, as they grant Postulata Mathematica, Mathemeticall Po­stulates; That although Motus Coeli semper sit Uniformis Velocitatis, the Motion of the Heavens be alwaies of a most Uniform Swiftnesse, because it hath already the highest Perfection of its Motion; yet Man upon Earth, being short of his highest Perfection, hath not a motion that is Uniform, but moves unequally, is fast and slow, sometimes humanely moves one way, [Page 158] ignorantly sometimes another way, a third way imperfectly sometimes, and moves neerer to the highest Per­fection, as he makes progresse in the way of divine Knowledge.

CHAP. XLIII.

THE sixt objection beares up to us. If I understand in the Text, by the Kingdome of God, as I seeme to doe, the Kingdome of Glory; then the Text, including Baptism, ex­cludes and excommunicates all Un­baptized Persons from the King­dome of Heaven.

To this Argument, Doctor Featly, according to his Grounds, would have answered: That all unbapti­zed Persons are excluded the King­dome of Heaven, de lege ordinariâ, by God's Ordinary Law; Christ here speaking strictly, to binde Parents to their duties: Yet, that God hath a Prerogative, quae est supra legem Ordinariam, which is above his Or­dinary Law; and by this, he doth, as worke miracles, [...]o extraordina­rily execute the secret Decrees of his Benevolence and good Pleasure, in [Page 159] extraordinary Cases; these requiring extraordinary Proceedings: And if we consider him, as having a royall Prerogative; he may not be confined, otherwise than he hath confined himselfe. And how God may be a­bove himselfe in differen [...] respects, is presently understood. For: As he is Author Gratiae, the Author of Grace, he works above himselfe as he is Author Naturae, the Author of Nature: the Supernaturall Order be­ing so called, because it stands above the Order of Nature; and Superna­turall Grace perfecting humane Na­ture in order to a supernaturall End▪ without which Grace we cannot ar­rive unto it: And extraordinary Ca­ses even in the same Order beget the different respects, and Considerations of God in his Prerogative, and God in his ordinary Course.

Now the Kingdome of Glory, is chiefly & most commonly understood by the Kingdome of God: because it is the first, and most noble thing un­derstood by it: and the Kingdome of Grace is not so called, but with de­nomination from the Kingdome of Glory: Which as of all Kingdomes [Page 160] it is the most excellent, this being the best, highest, and most profita­ble Sense of the Kingdome of God; so it most urgently obligeth us to Baptism under such Terms.

Eucharisticall Nourishment or Manducation, though it conduceth also to the nourishing of the Body; yet is more constituted under the Kinde of Spirituall Meat, under which Reason it is more profitable to us, than under the Kinde of materi­all and corporeal Aliment: As also an Iron or Steel-Breast-Plate, al­though it be a kinde of Garment, as it covers our Body, and defends it from heat and cold; yet goes more in the mouths and estimation of men, for a kinde of Armour, as which, it exerciseth it's chiefest office, and under which notion it is more profitable to Men, than for a Garment. In like measure proporti­onably, although the Kingdome of God signifies the Kingdome of Grace and the Kingdome of Glory; yet doth it more, and more often signifie the Kingdome of Glory, under which Sense it is most profitable and ad­vantagious to Mankinde; than it [Page 161] signifies the Kingdome of Grace. And when a word signifieth diverse Things, and one of them chiefly: the Thing which it chiefly signifieth, is the Sense if the Sentence will claspe with it: the chiefe Things, being to be chiefly consider'd, as alwaies first apprehended in our Goings from the Cause to the Effect.

The word, Body, may be un­derstood of a naturall Body, a mysti­call or Ecclesiasticall Body, a Civil or Politick Body. Which Word if it's place will endure it, must be under­stood of a naturall Body; because the naturall Body, is a true Body, and more properly a Body, than the rest; and because from the naturall Body, the mysticall and the Civill Bo­dy are called Bodies; the naturall Body being so realiter, really; the mysticall and Civill Bodies being so only denominative, by denomination. And we shall thus know when a Thing hath his name by denominati­on from another Thing. It hath▪ if, another thing so named being taken away by intellectuall Ablation or Se­paration, it therefore and immediately vanisheth as such. Take away the naturall [Page 162] Body; and the Civil and mysti­call Bodies lose their Names. Take away the Kingdome of Glory: and there will be no Kingdome of Grace. For: Sublato Principali tollitur Ac­cessorium; Sicuti, Sublatâ Causâ tol­litur Effectus; &, Subla [...]â Formâ Essentiali, Res ipsa tollitur: The prin­cipall being taken away, the Accesso­ry is also removed; As, the Cause be­ing taken away, the Effect is taken away also, which Essentially depends on the Cause; And, As the Essenti­all Form being taken away, the Thing it selfe is abolished. And the naturall Body is the principall Body, conside­red as a Body: and the Relations betwixt these Bodies as Essentially and Fundamentally depending on the naturall Body, fal to the ground, if the naturall Body, which is Fundamentum Relationis, the Foundation of the Relation, be set apart.

The Body of an Ape is in many parts and particles, like to the Body of a Man: and therefore, Galen ad­dicted himselfe more to the Anato­mising of Apes than of Men; as Franzius in S [...]mia [...]j Franzius recounts out of two fa­mous Anatomists, Vesalius and Co­lumbus. [Page 163] Yet, the Transition from Apes to Men, is not alwaies happy and successefull. If the Adversary had studied humane Arts and Scien­ces, or Anatomized Corpus Theologi­cum, the Body of Divinity; & not only read the History of Apes, in his lear­ning to make ilfavoured mouths and Vide Quin­til. in Rhet. evil faces; or learn'd only conformare os, to fashion his mouth to an untunea­ble Tone: he might himselfe have smooth'd his own way through these knottie Matters: and I now questi­on, if his unopen'd understanding can follow, when the way is ope­ned and playned before him for him by another.

CHAP. XLIIII.

BUT while the Adversary be­spattereth and bedawbeth his Mother-Church, as accusing her that she damns Children dying without Baptism; he runs himselfe inevitably upon Scylla or Charibdis. For: he would have Children sav'd without Christ; that is; without Grace, which is the bond of Salva­tion in Christ, and the wedding Garment; without Faith, (which is [Page 164] the first sanctifying Grace,) against the common cry of Scripture; and without a Sacrament, the Sacra­ments being the pure Channels of God's mercy to us in Christ: and so, sets them above all Ordinances: or, he would have them all damn'd who doe not ascend to the years of discretion. Alasse poore Babies.

That, God, as the great Provisor, and overlooker of the naturall and supernatural Order; and that Christ as the High-Priest, and the Shep­heard and Bishop of our Soules, sup­plies 1 Pet. 2. 25. by his extraordinary Power the inculpable defects of the Sacraments, which are Defects ex parte Mi­nistri, Materiae, &c. I deny not. And that he supplies all the Defects con­cerning them: I doe not affirme. Because the Supernaturall and extra­ordinary suppletion is, in the most part, when the ordinary failes with­out our fault or failing; it being therefore afforded; and the obliga­tion of the Supreme Provisor, in some such Cases only arising. As the U­niversall Cause in Nature, supplieth in like manner the naturall Defects of the Particular Cause.

Here the Adversary, being despe­rately resolved durissima atque ulti­ma sustinere, to endure all hardnesse: manumises this Proposition: Those who doe not manifest Grace, are not of the Visible Church.

I answer, first: The Innocents Mat. 2. 16. in the Gospell, Baptized Baptismo Sanguinis, with the Baptism of Blood; did not manifest Grace, and yet, were of the visible Church, be­cause they were visible Martyrs. And they are called by the Ancients, Primitiae Martyrum, the first fruits of the Martyrs. And when the Fathers in their Sermons upon St Stephen, dignify him with the Title of Protomartyr, the first Mar­tyr; they suppose him to have been the first in respect of adult Persons, and the first compleate Martyr.

Where learn, that the Baptism of Blood hath the same Effects, as Bap­tismus Fluminis & Flaminis, the Baptism of water and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost: that is: as Baptis­mus in Re & Baptismus in Voto, Baptism in the Thing and Baptism in Desire: here being an extraordinary Suppletion. Yea: the Baptism of [Page 166] Blood is the more noble, as having and holding a singular conformity with the Passion of Christ.

Secondly: If Children do not pertaine to the Visible Church, be­cause they cannot manifest Grace; then if they dye being Children mi­serable is their end, and their misery in the losse of God, is without end. Because the Church of God is Via, the way; she only, teaching it; and the Head of it, so calling himselfe: and the Kingdome of God, is Patria, the Country. And as no man comes to his Country, but by the way; So extra Ecclesiam non est Salus, out of the Church there is no Salvation: A Figure whereof was, That all were drowned in the Houd, whom the Floud found una [...]ked. The divine S. Cypr. lib. de Ʋni [...]ate Ecclesiae. Rule of St Cyprian is universally accepted: Non habet Deum Patrens, qui non habet Ecclesiam Matrem: He hath not the God of the Church for his Father, who hath not the Church of God for his Mother. And Concil La­teran sub Innocent. 3. cap. 1. the Faith▪ Confession of the Councill of Lateran under Innocentius the third, is innocent: Una est Fidelium Universalis Ecclesia, extra quam ne­mo [Page 167] salvatur: There is one Universall Church of the Faithfull out of which no Person is saved.

Lastly: outward manifestation of Grace, doth not render us Mem­bers of the visible Church as visible, that is, of the outward Church as it is outward: but, that we visibly and and outwardly communicate with the said Church, and are congrega­ted with the visible Members of it: (the Case of the Innocents was ex­traordinary, as the Birth of Christ was, upon which it waited:) be­cause the outward manifestation of Grace imports a reference to the Senses of men, which are not capa­ble of the Impressions of such mani­festation: and because outward manifestation in free Agents, is no infallible signe of inward and invisi­ble Grace, except it be infallibly known to us, that the Persons gi­ving such manifestation, are infalli­bly directea; or, except we receive it of God, by private Revelation.

CHAP. XLV.

THe last Objection comes to it's tryal: And it is the monumental Objection of Mr Tombs, the Ora­cle, Apollo, Champion, Achilles, Mr Tombs in his Exa­men. Goliath, Knight-Errant, or, lesse improperly, the feather'd Forehorse of our Anabaptists.

It parallels another Text with ours. Except ye eate the flesh of the Son of Man, and drinke his Blood, ye Jo. 6. 53. have no life in you. Being the Text in meditation whereof, Synesius hymns it of the Eucharist, that it is [...], Synes. in Hymnis. the Trophy of Divine Love.

It is not, saith Mr Tombs, proved sufficiently by illation from this Text, that Infants may receive the Lord's Supper: therefore neither from the other, that Infants may be Baptized. Wherefore although the Text treateth of Baptism, yet is it not efficaciously convincing for In­fants.

I answer. First: These Texts ve­ry much differ in their Logicall Terms and latitude. His Text is directed by a Term of restriction to the Jews, (to whom Christ prea­ched [Page 169] in the Synagogue,) being grown See V. 59. Persons; and commends to them the eating of strange, but solid meat, per­fectly agreable to them only, and such as they; Except ye eat, &c. In our Text, although presentially directed to Nicodemus, the direction is let loose, and widened with a Term extending to all persons young and old, &c. Except one be born.

Secondly: These Sacraments are very much different in their Natures and Effects. The Sacrament of Bap­tism was given, that it might initi­ate us, purge us from sin, and re­duce us to Spirituall Purity: and it is requisite, that even Children should be initiated, purg'd and redu­ced; and being now initiated bodily and apparently into the World, should not be left there by the Lover of Souls, as the most innocent, and yet wanting an Ordinance of Spirituall Initiation. For this rea­son: the Sacramentall and visible Action in Baptism, is washing with water; accordable even with Chil­dren, who are born unclean, and therefore, presently washed by the Midwife. The Eucharist was ap­pointed, [Page 170] that it might nourish and conserve Spirituall Life acquired in Baptism; which corporall Meat doth in corporeall Things▪ as conserving the animall Life: and therefore the Signes here are presented in the form of solid nourishment, which a­grees not perfectly with Babes, but only with grown Persons. Yea: the Spirituall Repast in the Eucharist, being instituted with analogy to ma­teriall Meat and Drinke; and pre­supposing in the Receiver, Spiritu­all Life: if it findeth it not, cannot nourish: materiall eating and drin­king, presupposing also the Life of Nature. And God giving grace to the religious and humble Receiver of this Sacrament; gives it alwaies as an augmentation of Precedent Grace, not as the beginning of Spi­rituall Life. But Baptism, as vivi­ficatory, primarily and properly be­longeth to Infants that are dead in sin. And a strong digestion of solid nourishment in Spirituall Things, conformable to vigorous Augmen­tation; is not, without the Spiritu­all strength and election of grown Persons. And the Eucharist most re­lieves [Page 171] the best disposed: As in Nature; Est modus operandi Causae uniuscu­jusque, ut (cateris Paribus) sempèr magis operetur in passum meliùs dis­positum: Every Cause more works upon a Subject more disposed, because it hath lesse to conquer. But there is no diversity of Disposition in Chil­dren; nor any positive or privative indisposition to Baptism And there­fore. Baptism infallibly, necessarily, and irresistibly produceth it's whole Ef­fect in them. For: Causa necessar [...]a sufficientèr applicata, debet operari: A necessary Cause applied sufficiently, must work; if it encounter no re­sistance requiring a Warlike encoun­ter in the Subject: and here is none.

Thirdly: when Actions are di­rected and determined to certaine Persons capable of performance: it is supposed, that the performance belongs to them and their care, to whom the determination and di­rection is made; as, in the Text, Except ye eat: the persons here be­ing all capable of such care and per­formance. But if Actions be en­joyned in Terms that involve all, and [Page 172] some be uncapable of the care and performance enjoyned: it is sup­posed that the performance belongs to the capable and knowing part, not only in respect of themselves, but also in respect of them who are unknowing and uncapable in themselves of such performance and care; and therefore Subordinate: And Parents are obliged to a care of their Children, Superiours to care for Inferiours, the Knowing to be carefull of the Ignorant, by the Laws of God and Nature.

Lastly: His Text is religiously true and illative even in our Sense. For: except the grown Jews, to whom solid nourishment belon­ged after their conversion; were converted, Baptized, and received the Sacrament of the Eucharist in Act or Desire: Or: if they wilful­ly rejected, or neglected the sacred use of it: they were void of Life; as not having the Life of Grace, and conserving it with agreeable nou­rishment.

CHAP. XLVI.

IF St Austin deduced a like neces­sity S Aug. l. 1. de peccato­rum Merit is & Remissio­ne, cap. 20. S Cypr. in l. de Laps [...]s. that Infants should receive the Lords Supper, from the words Joh. 6. as appears by his own cleare ex­pression. If within the Line of St Cyprians Dayes, the sacred Commu­nion was exhibited to Infants; as is evident by his evidence given con­cerning himselfe giving the Com­munion to an Infant. Which Hi­story with its Book, is againe Histo­ried by St Austin. If it be delive­red S Aug. cp. 23. up into the Senate and Councill of the Learned by Maldonat, that Maldon. Comment. in Jo. 6. Innocentius the first, held a necessi­ty of communicating Infants; and that this opinion and practise went on six hundred years with some parts of the Church: I shall yeeld it pas­sage as a pious Use, but not as abso­lutely or strictly necessary, nor as able to infringe the Baptizing of Infants, or our Text concerning Baptism; for the most unalterable Reasons newly given.

And moreover: because the suscep­tion of the Eucharist, cannot have [Page 174] it's whole, substantiall or most excel­lent Effect in Infants.

And the Authority of private Men, say the Sorbonists, when they Sorbonista▪ are not made publike by representing the Church in Councils; proves lit­tle in dubious, and those ill-byassed Cases. Originall and Secondary Tra­dition, are not of equall Validity. Neither are some particular Chur­ches and their use, comparable, or, to be measured with the overspre [...] ­ding use in the great stream of the Church.

Innocentius as a private Doctor, might accept it as a private opinion. So might St Cyprian, St Austin and others before them, as the Testimo­ny of Dionysius Areopagita makes credible.

It was a pious use, and some­what like, that the sacred crums were anciently given, in the Greek Church to innocent Children.

And uses of Ordinances must be measured with the Natures of them, and therby tried.

I maim no Authority because it is such, but as deviating or turning aside from Truth. The Cou [...]cill of [Page 175] Trent reasons devoutly, most piously, Concil. Triden.. Sess. 21. qu [...] suit quinta su [...] pio quarto, cap. 4. and according to right Reason: San­cta Synodus d [...]cet, parvulos usu ra­tionis [...]arentes, nullâ obligari necessi­tate ad Sacram [...]ntalem Eucharistiae Communionem; siquidem per Bap­tismi lavacrum regenerati & Christo incorporati, adeptam jàm filiorum Dei Gratiam in illa aetate amitte [...]e non possunt: The holy Synod teacheth, that Little-ones wanting the use of reason, are not obl [...]ged by necessary ob­ligation, to the Sacramentall all Commu­nion of the Eucharist: because they being regenerated by the Laver of Baptism and incorporated into Christ, cannot lose in that Age, the Grace of the Sons of God now obtained. Where the Councill learnedly enforces, that the Eucharist being ordained for the nourishing of the Grace received in Baptism; the use of it would be use­lesse, with regard to the main use, in an Age which cannot lose the Grace received.

And whereas we are nourished, not only that we may not perish, but also that we may be strengthened; we are not strengthened in Grace (for present use,) but by the concur­crence [Page 176] of actuall Grace, of the which, Children, as not acting by Grace, are uncapable: there only remaining accidentall and adventitious benefits according to the good use after­wards made of Baptismall Grace.

And now, quandoquidem umbo­ne exceperim hoc telum, seeing I have received this Dart upon the bosse of my Shield or Buckler; I thus retort it. If Infants were partakers of the Eucharist, then certainly they were Baptized being Infants: Baptism preceding the Eucharist: Yea, Dio­nysius S Dionys. Areap. lib. E [...]cles. Hierarch. c. 7. part. 2. having eternized in his Hie­rarchy, That the unbaptized ought not to be admitted to the sight of the Eucharist. And St Austin here wheels to us: Ad Sacramentum S Aug. l. 1. de peccat. Merit. & Remiss. cap. 20. Tom. 7. Mensae Domini nemo rit è nisi Bapti­zatus accedit: To the Sacrament of the Lords Table none come, by direct and orderly proceedings, but the Bap­tized.

That the Ancients were decei­ved in the Baptizing of Infants, as in communicating them; will not follow; because the Sacraments are differently natur'd, and intended; and because the practise was diffe­rently carriag'd.

This return of the Argument; is like Aurum fulm [...]nans, which is an Extract from Gold, admixed with other Ingredients; and in the blow, forceth downwards with a mighty power. This Return drives all down before it, but what was down be­fore.

CHAP. XLVII.

THirdly: I gather up my selfe to prove, that the Holy words, Except one be born, &c. word it, in the neerest and holiest Sense, for Baptism; from the sweet harmony, concord and consonancy betwixt other Texts of Scripture, and this Text thus understood. And thus I begin to raise the Works.

That Circumcision did forerun and foresignifie Baptism, and that Baptism answereth to it; is after­signified by the Apostle: who ab­stracting the Colossians from the Coloss. 2. 11, 12. old Circumcision, which was car­nall, and setling them upon the new, which is spirituall; transfers the Name of Circumcision to Baptism, and cals it the Circumcision made without hands.

Besides: Circumcision was, and Baptism is the initiating Sacrament: and they were both accordingly in­stituted, by way of Reliefe and Re­medy, against the first and funda­mentall evill deprehended and repre­hended in us, Originall sin; being the greatest Evill and sin, as the Cause of all other sins and Evils.

Now the Children of Christians, are as capable of Baptism, as the Children of the Jews were of Cir­cumcision: and as wanting of it. For: Idem est vulnus, & eadem Ratio Medicinae sub utroque Testamento: There is the same Wound, Soare, and Reason of the Medicine under both Testaments. Eadémque Ratio Legis: And the same Reason of Prescription for the Cure.

There is no repugnance there­fore, ex parte Sacramenti vel Instru­menti, on the part of the Sacrament or Instrument; neque etiam ex parte Subject [...], nor on the part of the Sub­ject Neither is there any resistance or opposition ex parte Instituentis, vel Author is Sacrament [...], on the part of the Institutor, Author of the Sacra­ment, or him that licentiates the [Page 179] coition of the Subject and Instru­ment; and authorizes by royall Au­thority, S [...]c Iames 2. 8 the Instrument to work In­strumentally upon the Subject.

And I make it up, thus Circum­cision according to the Institution of it, was in its Drift and Nature, a Seal of the Righteousnesse of Faith: And Rom. 4. 11. this was ipsissimus Finis Institutionis Baptismi, the very End it selfe of the Institution of Baptism, and com­prizes the Nature of it: it being in­stituted to be, and it being in it's Nature, a Seal of the Covenant of Grace, or, of the Righteousnesse of Faith.

And although Children under the old Law, had not on the eighth Day, actuall Faith, nor could expresse their Faith by their actuall profession▪ yet the Sacrament of Circumcision was actually applyed to them, as God's Legall Instrument: There­fore the Sacrament of Baptism, as God's Evangelicall Instrument, should, for the same Reason, be ap­plied actually to Children under the Gospell: and if it be not, the fault is in us, being the animate Instru­ments.

The Mouse in Lemnius, was be­gat Levinus Lemnius, l. 2. cap. 10 of Corruption in the Ventricle of a Man. What Beast is bred of the Corruption in the Brains of Anabaptists; except it be the Beast in Plandanus, which being most foul Vide Plau­danum, l. 2. de S [...]cretis O [...]bis, & Rerum Mi­raculis. and ugly, abhors all kinde of clean­nesse by washing, and therefore de­vours the Lambs approaching the Water, which in places remote from it, he loves, playes with, and che­rishes: I am altogether unknow­ing.

CHAP. XLVIII.

CIrcumcision was by command commended to the Jews: first that they might be admonished by this Signe, of the divine promise made to Abraham concerning the Gen. 12: 15. 17. 22. M [...]ssias, who was to come, as a royall Extract, of his Generation, and in whom all Nations and Gene­rations should be blessed: And in this respect, it was executed in Mem­bro Generationis, and was Signum Praefigurativum.

Secondly: that the People of God, should by this Signe be discri­minated [Page 181] and discerned from the Vide S. Chrysost. Hom. 30. & 39 in. Gen. Item, Ire­naeum l. 4. c. 30. S Jo. Dam▪ l. 4. de Fide Orthodoxa. cap. 26. Gentils. Wherefore St John Da­mascen was fixed in the Opinion, that the Israelites therfore were not Circumcised in the Wildernesse, because, they not being mingled with other Nations, there was no visible need of this distinctive mark: though indeed, a more applicatory Cause was; their difficult Journey would have been grievous to them, had they been there Circumcised: In this regard it was Signum Di­stinctivum.

Thirdly: that it might be used as the Remedy of Originall Sin: which in Circumcision, (and not by it,) was remitted by the Faith of the Parents: And therefore also, was Circumcision enacted in Membro Generante; Originall sin being tra­duced by Generation. So St Gre­gory, S. Greg. in cap. 3. Job. S. Bern. Serm. 3 de Circumcisi­one. S Beda in Lucae▪ c. 2. St Bernard, St Bedè. Hence the Fathers, catechizing the World, teach; that Circumcision stood in the Place of Baptism, and reversally Baptism stands in the place of Cir­cumcision. In this place it was Sig­num Rememorativum, scilicèt Pec­cati Originalis.

Fourthly: that a Name might be duly and religiously given to the In­fant. For: the Names of Abram and Sarai were changed, when the Gen. 17. Law of Circumcision was promul­gated: and whereas he had been called Abram, that is, Pater excel­sus, an high Father; Ab in the He­brew, signifying Father, (which in the Chaldee and Syriack, is Abba; and in the Greek and Latine, where­in there is the concession and free­dome of a literall Termination, Ab­bas,) and ram signifying high: God then added honourably to his Name, the letter Hain, and so drew it forth into Abraham: Which is in true signification, Pater multarum Gen­tium, the Father of many Nations: Likewise, his Wife having been formerly called Sarai, that is, my Princesse, Mistresse, or Lady; God abstracted from her Name, the letter Jod, and conveyed the letter He in­to the place of it; and she was cal­led Sarah, signifying Princesse, ab­solutely, and without any mean reference: (the literall Communica­tion from the incommunicable Name, Jehovah; I name not:) [Page 183] And here, it was Signum nuncupa­tivum.

Fiftly: that it might serve to the diminution and abatement of carnall Concupiscence; & therefore again, it was administred upon the Member, in the which, that Carnall Vanity most commandeth: And in this con­sideration, it was Signum directivum.

Sixthly: that it might be a Signe of the Spirituall Circumcision where­with Christ Circumcising us by his Blood, should remove the superflu­ities of our sins. Of this, St Paul: Rom. 2. [...]9, He is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and Circumcision is that of the Heart, in the Spirit, & not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. And to this also, agrees Irenaeus: And now, S. Irenaeus ubi supra, it was Signum Commonitorium.

Lastly: that it should be the Signe of our Baptism. Where­fore as Circumcision distinguished the Children of Abraham from the Gentiles; So Baptism severeth Christians from Infidels: As Cir­cumcision impressed a deep Chara­cter in the flesh, not easily concea­led even with Superinduction; so Baptism impresseth an indeleble [Page 184] Character in the Soul: As by Cir­cumcision, the Jews and Proselytes were piously received into the warm bosō of the Synagogue; so by baptism Christians are incorporated into the Holy Church, and made Members of it: As Circumcision did cut off the foreskin of the flesh; so Baptism cutteth away Carnall Concupis­cence, as instilling Grace into us, by the which we may resist it: And as in Circumcision, Originall Sin, was remitted; so also not only in Baptism, but even by the Grace of it, the same Sin is exauctorated: And in this Sense, it was Signum typicum, & Signum Bonorum futu­rorum in Christo, in cujus Mortem Baptizarentur Christiani.

CHAP. XLIX.

SHould I give it a kisse of Peace, Dr Taylor in his Liber­ty of Pro­phesying, Sect. 18. That Figures and Types prove no­thing, unlesse a Commandement go along with them, or some expresse to signifie such to be their purpose: al­though it unsalts, yea grievously belepers Gregory the Great in a great part of his works: I have expressed [Page 185] the Expresse, being the Expresse ex­pressed to the Colossians.

But I cannot give admittance to Idem ibid. all the following [...]ardle: Circum­cision l [...]ft a Character in the flesh, which being imprinted upon Infants did it's work to them when they came to age; and such a Character was ne­cessary because there was no word ad­ded to the signe; but Baptism imprints nothing that remains on the Body, the Character is on the Soule, to which also the word is added which is as much a part of the Sacrament as the Signe it selfe is; for both which rea­sons, it is requisite that the Persons Baptized should be capable of Reason, that they may be capable both of the Word of the Sacrament, and of the Impresse made upon the Spirit: Be­cause the Godfathers, anciently cal­led Susceptores, Undertakers, and still, Patrini and Compatres, oblige themselves, to acquaint these their Spirituall Children, entring upon the years of Understanding, with the ceremoniall Work and reall Effect of Baptism, which involve both the Words and the Spirituall Chara­cter. And the grown Children un­der [Page 186] the old Law, could not under­stand the direction of the Character in the Flesh, without such teaching; which is the formall and lively dire­ction; the Fleshly Character being no direction without expresse teaching, and but a materiall-one with it.

It was therefore, even before the formall Institution of Priests and Levites; the Duty of the Parent or Chiefe Person and First-born in the Family, to instruct the Child after­wards.

And as words were not used in Circumcision, so neither in any o­ther Sacrament of the old Law; be­cause the words in Sacraments, have necessary reference to the Word in­carnate, whom they designe, and from whose actuall Passion, words being inefficacious of themselves, they have that they are effectuall.

Hence the School-Divines re­quire, that the Minister of a Sacra­ment in the administration of it shall intend to behave himselfe as a Di­spenser of the Mysteries of Christ: and farther teach, that if he shall Baptize without intention, or as a De­vilish Engin of Contradiction with a [Page 187] positive Intention and resolution against it; he will not act as a Di­spenser of the Merits of Christ in his Mysteries; but attribute strength to words, (in the manner of Wit­ches and Conjurers) which as meerly such, are not forcible.

These Things orderly considered, the Reason of the Parity betwixt the Sacraments, fails not; and the Argument though analogicall, is efficacious.

I understand at last, that I doe not make these Batteries against the Doctor's Judgement, but his Policy. And again, I bleed inwardly with grieving, that the Divines in emi­nent places; should betray Spirituall Truth, to found the Colossus of a temporall Purpose: (for, this was truly the false and unfriendly be­traying of a most invinsible Fort to a most false enemy of Truth:) As if the mysticall Body and the chained Order of it, were subordinate to a Civill Body and it's Order and Chaine: And as if Heaven were not rightly pla­ced above Earth, and God above Princes. I am assured, that he found no such lineament in the Exemplar, [Page 188] the Life of Christ. Yet, I hope, he will furnish us with Holy Lifes and Prayers enough to redeeme his Er­rour. And perhaps, he will write seriously for God, of the same Sub­ject, as he hath written against him in jest and mockery. Fie, fie: Abe­at in Proverbium, Let it passe into a Proverbe: A Doctor amongst the Anabaptists.

The Judgement of Agapetus was both ordinat [...] and edificatory; as is evidenced by the religious Councill he gave to Justin [...]an the Emperour: Caesar [...]ius Tom [...]an Just [...]niano. Sceptrum Imperil cùm a Deo susce­peris, cogitato quibusnam modis pla­cebis et, qui id tibi dedit; cùmque omnibus Hominibus ab eo sis praelatus prae omnibus eum honorare fest [...]na, Whereas you have received the Scrp­ter of the Empire from God; thinke, by what means you shal please him who gave it unto you: and whereas you are set by him before all men has [...]en to Honour him before all Men: and to set God-pleasing, above the plea­sing of Men. But the mourning Nightingale sitting upon the sharp Thorn in the midst of my Heart, sweetly sings to me, that the sub­lime [Page 189] Soul of the royall Clay abhorred this low, hellish, Atheisticall, and most dirty Stratugem.

CHAP. L.

I Confirm the Argument, first: If the Children of Christian Pa­rents, should be thus excluded from Baptism, they would be empaled into a narrower and more limited Condition, than the Children of the Jewes under the Law: the Sacrament of Circumcision opening to these, the royall Dore of God's Visible Church, and entring them as blessed Partakers of his Promises: And so, the Sacred and compleat Ordinances of Christ, should be most unnaturally Circumcised and Cir­cumscribed; which in their Nature, Work and End, are much more large and ample, than those of the Law: The Intention of the Ordainer in his Personall Comming, (Christ the Fountain of Grace, now comming visibly and in Person with his Foun­tain running Wine and Oyl,) being, not to shorten, abridge, or abolish, but to lengthen, enlarge, and multiply [Page 190] Evangelicall priviledges; as appears in the multitude of Persons now ac­cepted to Grace by Generall accepta­tion, and of their extraordinary Gra­ces, and the extraordinary Manners of their being given: And the fun­damentall aim of the divine Ordai­ner, (that works in his second works, which are his works of Grace, agree­ably to his first Works, which are his Works of Nature, and in Whose only power it is to institute a Type, be­cause it is in his Power only, to an­nex the Thing Typified:) being, to make plain, that the Substance is more effectuall than the Shadow, the End more excellent than the meanes; and the succeding Antitype, than the preceding Type.

Children therefore, may not be Losers, but must be Gainers by the comming of Christ; and that they may be Gainers, must be supported from falling into a Chas [...], by an Evangelicall Sacrament.

He that shall urge here, [...] polemically: Children accor­dingly, Mr Tombs in his Exa­men. should receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist, because they were admitted to the Passeover: must [Page 191] prove, and binde it fast with the nerves and▪ ar [...]eires of strong Argu­ments, that Infants were admitted to the Passeover, as to the receiving of that Sacrament; the manner of Exod. 18. 11. which, is prescribed in Exodus: and likewise, that the Nature and Ef­fects of the Eucharist, are as cohe­rent with Infants, as the Effects and Nature of Baptism are proved to be.

And though we shall not put God to a confinement: yet because, in ordinary Things and Cases, he hath confined himselfe to his own Order, we shall consider him in comparison of such Things, to be there where he hath put himselfe; and not ex­pect extraordinary Works in disa­greeing and ordinary Courses; or Superord [...]nations within the Domi­nion of Ordinances.

For the way to God, being the way of God, is agreeable to God; as [...] Meanes agree with the End. And therefore, we come to the God of Order and of Harmonious Heaven, by an orderly Way, which is the Godly Participation of his Ordinances: As Men goe to the De­vill, the God of this World and of [Page 192] Discorder, (Sidonius testifying, there Sidon: lib. 2. ep. 9. is a great Head or Power in Hell, overlooking and overawing all, that there be no order kept;) [...] a disorder­ly Way, which is the wicked neglect, contempt or abnegation of his Holy Ordinances.

CHAP. LI.

I Confirme it, secondly: Christ is the Son of the Father of Mercies: his Naturall Son: And: From the Father and the Son, by one ever­lasting and undivided Act, proceeds the Holy Ghost, who is Love, [...]or, 1 Jo. 4. 16. Text. Grac as the Originall, [...], Charity: And: the Son of God, so loved Mankinde, that he took the Nature of Man, in the very wombe of a Woman, and first was and appea­red a Child. And this Divine Son of God, grown from a Child to a Man, professed himselfe to be, and was Medicus Animarum, the most knowing and most mercifull Physi­t [...]an of Souls.

Now, is it imaginable by intel­lectuall Creatures: or, can a Man be so blinde to the Law of Christ, whose Love, Wisdome, Providence and in­finite; [Page 193] as to think, that our Spiritu­all Physitian, described by the Pro­phets and in the Gospell, as the grand Master of the Colledge; would now under the Gospell, which is the Perfection of the Law, and to publish which Christ himselfe became a Child, suffer Children to have a damnable and mortal Disease, inward, but revealed, in his Visible Church, upon which, rejecting the Synagogue, he setled all Heavenly Rights and Properties, now purcha­sed and unfolded by his Death; and not suffer them to have a revealed Cure by a Visible Ordinance?

It is improper, that the Society of Jesus, which Jesus is the greatest Lover of Mankinde; should be such an evill Companion, as to molest and incommodate all other Societies and Communities. But it is most improper, that the sweet and blessed Child Jesus, should not be a Saviour of sweet Children, as he is of other Persons; or, that they should want the Blessing of his Providence.

Plutarch honours in Ti [...]us a Pa­gan Plutar. in Tite, Vespa­siam Filio. Emperour, that he was Deliciae Humani Generis, the Dainties of [Page 194] Humane Kinde; and that he was of­ten heard to say; Hodie non regna­vimus, quia neminem affecimus Be­neficio, We have not reigned to day, as not having been beneficiall to any. Palladius applauds Bisarion, because Pallad in [...]ausi [...]ca, cap. 116. Leonti [...]s in vita Joan. Eleemosy­na [...]ii. he sold his Bible for the reliefe of a poor Man. And Leontius magnifies in Joannes Eleemosynarius, that he wept alwaies in the evening, when in the Day he had not been solicited for the suppliance and succour of some afflicted Person. And now, the Anabaptist sets Christ, in whom the fullnesse of Mercy as of the Godhead dwels, looking sternly and immove­ably, night and day, upon all inno­cent Children, (who in puris natu­ralibus cannot looke towards him, and who, by the default of others, are burdened with accidentall and grievous Impediments,) and leaving them destitute of Help, yea selling, in a manner his Book of Promises and glad Tidings to others, for their Prejudice, and without any pitty of them pretty Souls.

The Casuists publish to the World, Casuistae. that when the publike Use of a Thing is both Righteous and sinfull, sub [Page 195] diverso respectu, according to the good or evill Persons using it; as Oyl was in the Primitive Times, wherein it served for meat and for Lamp-use, and was orderly used by the Christians, and by the Jews, disorderly: it may be Righteously sold to all that are not known to buy it for evill purposes. This Do­ctrine of the Anabaptists, cannot be accepted of any for a good End; because it is evill in it selfe, as Blaspheming the Mercy of God, the Procession of the Holy Ghost, who proceeds ut Amor, as Love; the In­carnation of Christ; as excommuni­cating harmelesse Children, assig­ned to Christ by divine Title; as profaning all Congregations and Families, with uncircumcised and Unblessed Company; as being in­jurious to the whole Church of God.

CHAP. LII.

I Confirme it, thirdly: As it is an ordinary manner of Inference, to infer by arguing à majore ad minut affirmativè, From the greater Thing to the lesser affirmatively; thus: He [Page 196] that is able to doe the greater Thing, is able à fortiori to doe the lesser, in eodem Ordine, in the same Order of Things: because, as God having an Infinite Power, does all things equal­ly, and with like facility: so we be­ing finite, and acting by our Power, act proportionably with it; and in proportioned and subordinate Acts of Power, the greater includes the lesser: And as this Manner of Inference concerns the Power of the Agent: So is it an extraordinary manner of In­ference, but a firm one and Giant­strong, according to the divine Lo­gick of Scripture; to infer by argu­ing à minore ad majus, from the les­ser Thing to the greater; thus: If God actually cares, and exercises his Pow­er in caring, for the Sparrow, and the Haires of our Head; he cares much more for our Children: If he provides comfortably, for Children under the Law; he provides more comfortaebly, for Children under the Gospell: And this Manner of Inference, concernes the providentiall Love and good Will of the Agent.

And although this Manner of In­ference, be not ordinary, but, with [Page 197] certain other applications, deniable; yet the work and Order of Love, is a Proof above Nature and Reason, and will not be thus limit-bound.

So we teach in ordinary Logick; A posse ad esse non valet Argumen­tum: The Argument is not Valid which saith, whensoe're there is a pas­sive Power that a Thing may be done, then also, is there an active Power, which shall or will doe it: Because, although every Passive Power hath an active Power extant, and respon­sible to it▪ Yet many times they meet not. But Love and Truth transcend all, and teach above the ordinary Level, that the Rule is contrary, and rules thus; A posse ad esse praesens vel futurum valet Argumentum, when it meets with a Set and promised Order of divine Things; and that God having willingly and lovingly bound himselfe to an Ordinary Law, and proportionable Course; being extraor­dinarily able to keep it, will not ordinarily break it.

And the proportionable Course is founded in this: That the old Law was a Figure of the new; and the S Dionys. Eccles. Hierarche. c. 5. part. 1. new is a Figure, saith Dionysius, of [Page 198] our future Glory: And that in the new Law, the Things▪ done in the Head, were Signes of the Things to be done in the Members: Whence arise the three Spirituall or mysti­call V [...]e D. Tho q 1. a. 10. in corp. Senses of Scripture, allegoricall tropologicall, or morall, and anagogi­call.

And it is not a Spirituall Sense in our Sense here, when words doe sig­nifie Things, but when Things do sig­nifie other Thing [...] ▪ As: When the Things under the Law, signifie the Things under the Gospell, and the Things done by the Head of us, sig­nifie the Things to be done by us; and the Things under the Gospell, signifie the Things of Glory▪ by Gods Ordination: who only, makes Ho­ly Things to signifie other Holy Things that are subsequent to them by connexion from his Decree, through much difference of Time, Place, and Persons: And therefore, as the mystical members necessarily per­taine to the invisible Head, and Glo­ry of necessity follws the Gospell; so the Gospell followes the Law, and pertaines to it; as giving to the Life in every touch of the Pencill, what [Page 199] the Ceremoniall part of the Law hath shewed in the first draught.

CHAP. LIII.

NOte. Baptism▪ succed [...] Cir­cumcision, quoad Substant [...]am, non quoad Omnes Circumstantias: agreeably to the Substance, not agre­ably to all the Circumstances, (which Circumstances in the greater part, are now heterogeneous:) As the Sa­crament of the Eucharist, succeeds the Feast of the Paschall Lamb.

And therefore we, conforming to old Things in their new Substantials: are not obliged to Baptize Children on the eighth Day, this being a Circumstance of Time; nor in the part wherein they were Circumci­sed, this being a Circumstance of Part or Place; nor to Baptize the Males only, this being a Circum­stance of Person, as it designes this and that Male, and as it relates to the Exclusion of Females; though not, as it imports in recto the Inclu­sion of Males.

Where I suppose against Dr Tailor; See Doctor Tailor Sect. 18. That the Persons included, under [Page 200] the reduplication, as such, or, as included, are not a Circumstance, neither are impertinent and acciden­tall to the mysteriousnesse of the Rite, but pertain essentially to the mystery, as without which persons being the Subjects of it, the mystery could not be constituted, or performed.

So Males and Females, at the least disjunctively, pertain to the essence and actuality of Baptism, as being more ample.

For: then only, Persons are in proper Speech Circumstances of a Work or Action, when they are on­ly Circumstantially, outwardly, and accidentally interessed in it; as heer the Persons are, consider'd in indi­viduo, but not, consider'd in the whole Kinde.

Now these old Circumstances had of old, their sufficient Reasons. Circumcision was deferred untill the eighth Day, that the Children might gaine strength, for the prevention of precipitation into mortall Dan­ger. Which Reason falleth off in Baptism, in the which, our skin is not stirred; the new Law being a Law of Love, as the old Law was a [Page 201] Law of Terrour and Fear. Children were Circumcised in Membro Ge­nerationis, for the reasons given be­fore; the chiefe and carrying rea­son whereof, now fals with it's Car­riage; because Christ is already born and we are not Abraham's Chil­dren, otherwise than by Faith; and the greater Number of Christians Baptize all parts of the Body, to signifie a totall and perfect washing of Spirit: (though Clement the eighth Clemen [...] octavus in extravag. declared for the admittance of the foot or hand to Baptism, in case the Child should be in danger, and the hand or foot only, shew it selfe as ani­mated, & with proper motion.) And the Males only, were circumcised; because this Ordinance attached them in the part proper to them, they being the stronger, and only a­ble to bear a wound and bloudshed in that Age: Which reason, as it re­lates to Females, now loses it's hold: Who then, it is most proba­ble, were imbraced by some other Ordinance which the Scripture conceals, and not by their lackying to the Males.

Wherefore Baptism is not ex­pressly [Page 202] adjudg'd by God to these Cir­cumstances; as Circumcision was.

And although there was in the manducation of the Paschall Lamb, no prescription of Sacramentall drinke; we will not hence deduce that the Eucharist may not by divine Ordinance, be administred but in one kinde: Because in the most ancient Churches, it was at the first admini­stred in both kindes; yea, in many Western Churches, this use continu­ed unto the Dayes of Aquinas: And Vide D. Tho in [...]d [...] Materiâ. because the Feast under the more perfect and explicit Law, is in it selfe, more perfect, compleat and explicit; and especially in it's noblest Use; as explicitly and perfectly representing and signifying the Passion of Christ sacrifized for us.

CHAP. LIV.

I Draw with a chain of Adamant, my second Scripture-Consonancy, à Mandato Christi, from the com­mand of Christ. For: When Boëti­us Boëtius su­per Topica Ciceronis l. 6. non procul a sine. delivers, Locus ab Auctoritate est infirmissimus, The Topick of Au­thority is most infirm; he doth not [Page 203] infringe his own Authority, but speaks of Authority founded upon Humane Faith, not of Authority founded upon Science, or upon di­vine Revelation, which comes from God; who by reason of the infinite Light of his Understanding, cannot be deceived in himselfe; and by reason of his infinite Truth, cannot deceive others: the Authority of his word understood aright, being therefore most firm.

Goe ye, saith Christ, and teach all Mat. 28. 19. 20. Nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. If we bring this English Text to a refinement by the Greek: it will sound otherwise. The Eng­lish teaches: teach all Nations: So also, the Vulgar Latine. But the Edit. vulg. Text. Graet. Greek disciples us: [...], disciple all Nations; not [...], teach ye. Which ex­pression, doubtlesse, in the first and most common acception of it, intends as the compleate Sense, the making [Page 204] of Disciples by actuall teaching: and this discipling was afterwards most common, as being agreeable with the much greater part of such who were designed for Disciples. But in a second and lesse common acception, as agreeable with a lesser part, and an incompleate and lesser kinde; the word Disciple signifieth initiate, or, set apart for Disciples; or, devote such to God, by marking them for Disci­ples, and let them be taught after­wards, who in regard of their pre­sent ineptitude and incapacity, cannot be presently made Disciples by actuall teaching.

And the Reason of this Expositi­on, is uncontrolable: Which is: When an Active Verb of Command, is applied to all Nations or People; it must admit such Senses, by the which, it shall approve it selfe ap­pliable to all people or Nations: And Children certainly are a bigger part of the Nations or People, in respect of their number; than they are in respect of their growth.

And that our Children are so discipled, is undeniable: Because, first: they are offered to God by the [Page 205] Church, or by their Parents; who devote them, and give their Names to Christ:

Secondly: the Susceptores under­take for them; that, in conformity to their Obligation intimated in the Form of Baptism, (which is after­wards expressed in the Charge,) they shall be taught the true Worship of the most Holy Trinity. Hitherto they are onely Disciples in Fie­ri.

Thirdly: they receive the royall Marke or Character in their Souls; by the which, they are Seal'd for God, and made Disciples and Chri­stians in Facto esse: not as being actually taught, but as being put into the School and Family of Christ, and set actually in the number of his Dis­ciples, according to the lesse com­mon acception of the word.

We send sometimes, little children to School or put them into the hands of Tutors or Governours, not for their present & actuall improvement by learning, but that they may be kept out of harms way. And thus children are sweetly received into Chrstian Discipline, to way-lay the [Page 206] danger of their dying without Bap­tism, God's generall and Holy Or­dinance; the Holy Ordination of which, was not for nought in respect of any person.

Though this be adduced for Il­lustration sake; and Similitudines Illustiant, non probant, Similitudes prove not, but Illustrate: Yet, when the Similitude stands with both feet, upon Things of neer affinity, and like Oeconomy, and concurring to Iden­tity or some aggregate Perfection combined in the same End, (as the outward Man and the inward Man in the same man, are but one and the same Christian Man, tending to Legatur Sua­rez in Me­taph. Disp. de Ʋno, Sect. 8. Christ;) the Illustration is a solid Probation.

CHAP. LV.

AND in this Text, the word, Teaching followes [...], Teaching them to ob­serve V. 20. &c. And yet▪ we doe not there presse the word, Teaching, to teach, that Teaching alwaies and of neces­sity followes Baptism; because Bap­tism of necessity and alwaies follows [Page 207] Teaching in Adultis, in grown Per­sons capable of Teaching.

But now, will they force Christ to speak irrhetorically, and burden Scripture with a Tautology, that he may speak for them? Truly if they should, he would immediately draw off, and leave them to speak for themselves. For [...] If Teaching be set before Baptizing, it will not e­vince, that all the Persons deputed for Baptism, must be actually taught before they be Baptized.

First: Because, ut habetur in Ma­teri [...] de Legibus; Statuta Commu­nia Videatur Materia de Legibus. prop [...]ntur secundùm quod mul­titudeni conveniunt: & ideò Legisla­tor in eis statuendis attendit id quod communiter, & in pluribus accidit: Generall Appointments, as this is, are proposed accordingly as they a­gree with the greater number: and therefore, the Lawgiver in appoin­ting them, attends to that which commonly, and for the most part hap­pens. And the greater number in those times, were such as should be taught before they could be Bapti­zed, being grown Persons: and the Lawgiver attends to the common [Page 208] course, and bids, teach all Nations Baptizing them.

And indeed in the Conversion of Nations, and the generall Plantati­on of Christian Faith; the Preaching of the Word, as being the first onset upon the Sense and Soule, prece­deth orderly and simply, the admini­stration of the Sacraments.

Secondly: because it might also be reasonably answered; (which would rebate the edge of all that could be said;) The stepping of teaching be­fore Baptizing, doth no more carry away with it, that teaching hath legall precedency, and ought alwaies to take the place in action before Baptizing; than that Repentance, as being commanded before Faith in the Words, Repent ye, and beleeve Mar. 1. 15. the Gospell, should therfore claime alwaies the first place; which yet, is a fruit of Faith: Faith attending upon Repentance here, by a Rheto­ricall [...].

These pleasures of the Holy Ghost in the contexture of Scripture, occa­sioned the Rule of Exposition, Non datur prius aut posterius in Scriptura: Scripture observes not sometimes, [Page 209] what is former, or what latter in it selfe.

I commiserate the Adversary heer; he being so environ'd, that if he will dance, he must needs dance in a Hoop. But, as St Austin elegant­ly: S Aug. l. 1. Confess. cap. 13. Quid est miserius misero non mi­serante seipsum? What is more mise­rable than a miserable man having no commiseration towards himselfe?

CHAP. LVI.

THere is another knot. The Text in the Mine, hath: [...], Baptizing them in­to the Name-: Because the Baptized should not only catch to themselves, the Name and Profession, but also be soberly immersed into the Thing professed and named.

I answer: The Undertakers take for Infants, with respect to the Profession: but the Thing and the Name, themselves take. They are washed and Sanctified in the Name of Christ; and are therefore called Christians: externall Communicati­on being necessary to a Member of the visible Church; but not externall [Page 210] and personall Profession in this case; the Persons being uncapable of it, and the Profession of others, being equipollent on the behalfe of such Persons.

Still they stick by the teeth, at [...]: and finding it to be an alien in gender from [...], they have taken up from under the hedge in the High-Way, a Noun whereon to throw it; which themselves have made fit, and clothed: And this is [...], Disciples. And thus they send back [...], them, with a passe and an Officer, to be carried, not to the Nations, it's native place, but to the Disciples in the Nations.

Let the Answer be. The like Con­junction of [...] and [...], is fre­quent in Scripture: And they are at once, thrice conjoyned in the Apo­calypse. Rev. 20. 8. 9. 10. And why may we not more naturally fetch out a companion for [...], from the Vulgar use of spea­king, thā from a strang V [...]rb of Com­mand, (which Verball fetch, would be a wondrous fetch & [...], or Abase of speech, and most abusively surrogate one word for another:) and [...]ather Substitute [...] a [Page 211] Name common to Men, Women, and Children; and binde all up in the ende of the Construction, with [...], of all the Na­tions?

Neither is the Conjunction of [...] and [...], incongruous; because [...] is a most ready word in that Language; and as alwaies ready, so able alwaies to make the con­struction perfect: the Nations being constituted of Men, Women, and Children.

What a mighty weight would these underlings and Country-Workemen heap upon a new-sang­led supposition of their own: When a Building should not be impropor­tionable to the Foundation.

The Author of the Arabick Ca­tena, Author A­rabicae Cate­nae, cap. 8. sets for a mark to us, that Cain's Marke made him proof against Men and all their Weapons: Had there been Swords or Pikes, they could not have entred him: had there been Guns; he was so marked by God, that he could not have been their Mark to be marked by them: Against all the Beasts, and Serpents: his Force and Poison proved the stron­ger, [Page 212] and subdued their Poison and Force: Against the Elements: He could nor be burned by the most de­vouring Fire; or drowned by the great Ocean of Water; or blasted by the most Pestilentiall Air; or crushed by the fall of a Rock or Cliff. Against the War and uproar of the Clouds, and Sky: Thunder and Lightning could not offend him; nor, Tempests hurt him.

The simple Herd of Anabaptists fancy to themselves, that their Argu­ments are all of proof; and they prove nothing for them, but only, that they prove nothing for them, and altogether for us. An ordinary pen, is a sufficient Weapon to pierce them: One sparke of industrious courage, is able to consume them: A few drops from the profound School-Ocean; to chill, benumme, and drown them.

CHAP. LVII.

I Confirm this Argument, first: Christ demonstrated by his Exam­ple, that he intended in his com­mand, the Baptizing of Infants. It is [Page 213] written: Jesus himselfe Baptized not, Joh. 4. 2. but his Disciples: that is: Baptized not ordinarily, but only extraordina­rily; in compliance with the Testi­mony of Euodius.

And Jesus devolved and delegated the function of Baptizing, to his Dis­ciples: First: that he might enable them, in regard of appliance to the wants of the Church: And secondly, that he might ennoble them; and that the people might look upon them as having such pow­er so derivatively conferred on them. For▪ had Christ himselfe commonly Baptized, the People would have greedily sought to be Baptized by him, and have waved his Disciples who therefore, would have sunk in repute, and been brought into con­tempt and obloquy.

Now Christ Baptizing not, for these Reasons: could not in his Ex­ample, express for Infants, more fully & plentifully thā he did. He said: Suff­er See Mat. 19. 13. 14. 15. Mar. 10. 13. 14. 15. 16. little children to come unto me: that is: to come in a large Sense, or, have accesse to me, for a Spirituall End. And the three Evangelists, who treat of this Matter, declare first, that they [Page 214] were brought. Yea St Luke saith ex­pressely; Lu. 18. 15. 16. 17. And they brought unto him also Infants, that he would touch thē. Where the Original ears exact­ly: [...]: But Text. Graec. they brought unto him also sucklings: Adferebant, non adducebant: they brought them, they did not leade them.

Roger Bacon instructs us in his Perspectives, that Looking-Glasses Rogerus Bacon in Perspect. Dist Ʋlt. may be erected, by the representa­tions of which, we may, notwith­standing the interposition of much distance, looke into the Countries Cities, and Camps of our Enemies. Let us here as in a Glasse, behold the deceitfull carriage of our Adversa­ry in reversion.

What nimble Familiar taught Mr Tombs, that when the word Mr Tomb [...] in his Exa­men. Mat. 12. 22. Mat. 17. 16. [...] is applied to the blind and deafe Demoniack, and to the lunatick Child; the persons were steered to Christ upon the carriage of their own legs, and not carried to him? Anabaptism walkes by the false Light of strange and feverish Fancies.

And is there not a blindnesse and [Page 215] deafnesse, (I will be modest and not asperse them with Devilish­nesse,) in such who will not allow [...] to signifie they carried, when it is joyned with so portable Subjects, as [...], babes?

Such might be shamed into bet­ter knowledge, by the Greek words, which begin with a Child, and are both carried and run along with him untill he ceases to be a Child. First: in the womb of his Mother, he is [...]: being born he is [...], or [...]: there he staies a while: he is afterwards [...], puerulus; (which word is used by St Matthew and St Marke:) untill he be [...] a stripling Boy.

But Mr Tombs being ready­handed, Mr Tomb [...] in his Exa­men. would gladly take away the word [...] to signifie a Child explerato ingenio praeditum, come to some known ripenesse ▪of Wit and Un­derstanding, and now capable of Learning: because the Apostle writes thus to Timothy: And that 2 Tim. 3. 15. from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures: in the place of the Trans­lation expounding from a Child, the Originall exposing [...]: Text. Grac. [Page 216] Which in our Sense, would signifie, from thy very Infancy.

It is not far to the Answer. The Intention of the Apostle is, to mani­fest here, that his Timothy had ear­ly and betimes applied himselfe to the reading of Holy Scriptures; and therefore, he takes a Word upon which, that he might raise up this Example as an honourable Pyramis with a point like a Flame, he builds an Hyperbolicall Sense: the plaine and ready meaning of which, is; thou did'st begin so early to learn Ho­ly Scriptures, that, had it been possi­ble, thou wouldest have begun, even from thy very Infancy.

A word now, having a proper Sense, in the which it is almost al­waies used for a common Reason; and a Sense that is Hyperbolicall; in the which, for a speciall Reason, it is used once only: shall I disdainfully turn away from the proper Sense, and adhere to that which is Hyperboli­call and improper? Certainly, no Man doth it, unlesse to defend improperly, improper Works.

I make up al into a pretious Brace­let, thus: Christ by receiving In­fants [Page 217] into his Arms and Bosom, he being the Bridegroom and Head of the Church; and now working as the Head and Bridegroome: shewed, that we might receive them into the Bosom and Arms of the Church: Christ by laying his hands upon them, in sign they were his own; shewed, that we might signe them, as his: Christ by blessing them, (which was the last and highest of present mercies, it being supposed that he Baptized not;) shewed, that his Disciples, and we might Baptize them, (which is the last of our pre­sent favours towards them:) And therefore, Christ by saying, Suffer little Children to come unto me; shewed, that we must not prohi­bit them to be brought unto Christ by Baptism: And Christ by de­claring, that of such (and none but such) is the Kingdome of God; de­clared likwise, that the Kingdome of Grace, as the Way, is open to them.

CHAP. LVIII.

I Confirm it, secondly: The Church, or Kingdome of Grace, may not reject such as the Kingdome of Glory receives: Yea: Such as the King­dome of Glory receives, must be re­ceived into the Church or King­dome of Grace, by God's Ordinances in it, as Ordained to give them the Signs of their Title to the Kingdome of Glory: it being said of the Church now increasing, And the Lord ad­ded Acts 2. 47. to the Church daily such as should be saved: Without which daily and visible addition to the Church, of such as shal be saved; the [...] or hairy Devils Scripturized by Aquila, Aquila in Is. 13. 21. would soon dance in it.)

If therefore, Infants must be of­fered to Christ, and thereby have a Communion with him in the King­dome of Heaven; Baptism Christ's Ordinance, now in full vigour and force, must be communicated to them in the Church, Velut Arrha Sponsi, as a Christian Signe of this their Communion with Christ, and Right to him in the Kingdome of Glory, and as a visible Manifestation of this invisible Benefit; the Church [Page 219] of God, being as truly visible as in­visible.

He that objecteth our Text, say­ing, Text. Graee▪ Mr Tombs in his Exa­men. [...], of such, not [...], of these, is the Kingdome of God, or, of Heaven: and that Christ intended to teach others Humility, Simplici­ty, Innocency, by these Children: and that therefore, the Kingdome of God is of such only, who are like to these Children; such Children expressing not Innocency, Simplicity, Humility, as they are Vertues: may take for a sure Answer: Prop­ter quod aliquid est tale, & illud ma­gis: That for which, any Thing is such, is it selfe more such: If Men be qualified for the Kingdome of God, by reason of their likenesse with such Infants; such Infants are as much (if not more) qualified for the same Kingdome: who, though they doe not expresse true Vertues out­wardly, yet outwardly expresse the likenesse of such Vertues; and have inwardly, true Vertues by Infusion, effecting their inward conjunction with God.

And this outward likenesse, though naturall and not flowing from in­ward [Page 220] and Supernaturall Habits, yet is in such Infants, outwardly signi­ficative of inward Perfection; from which signification, the similitude is taken.

Where it is Note-worthy, that Baptism was not obligatory, or ne­cessary to Salvation, untill after the Death of Christ, (the very Morning-Rites and Sacrifices being on the day of his Passion, in force; and the Evening-oblations, invalid;) nor declared in a generall consideration, untill the command went forth, Goe ye therefore, and teach all Nations, Baptizing them, &c: nor yet, fully & compleatly sealed and perfected, untill the promulgation of the Gos­pell in the Pentecost.

And we are not driven to take Sanctuary at the Terms of the Sum­mulists: Summu­lissae. [...] and stand it out, that other children in the rigour of Speaking, are such. For: although Christ did both commend these Vertues (the likenesse whereof is in children,) and Men-piously-turn'd-children, in re­spect of their having them truly: yet he shewed also, that the age of children is not underannuated, and [Page 221] estranged from the Kingdome of God. Because when he said, Suffer little Children to come unto me, he spake literally and Historically of true children, presented actually to him: And therefore even the reason adjoyned, for of such is the King­dome of God; must also truly agree with true children: and those im­bracings and blessings of true chil­dren, signifie truly, the like Things in the Kingdome, and import Hea­venly blessings and imbracings.

CHAP. LIX.

I Confirm it, thirdly: If in this great Command of Baptizing, children be not included; God having im­printed in the nature of Parents, a most ardent and earnest Love of their children; there is nothing in the Supernaturall Order of Grace, that answers to this naturall Love, according to the way of God in the disposition of these Orders; and the Parent is left by the God of Nature, very much loving his child, and yet, not succoured by the God of Grace, or inform'd how or that his child shall [Page 222] be beloved of God▪ without which pectorall security, he cannot love his child as he ought, and with a love becomming a Christian Fa­ther.

I speak of security by Ordinance, (we being confined to Ordinances,) which excludeth four. And if this fear be not excluded; it will be con­tinuall and urgent; and the Gospell and law of Christ, shal, in this respect, be Lex Timor is & Servitut is, non Amoris & Libertatis, a law of Fear and Bondage, not of Love and Liberty: which it essentially is, and ought, and is revealed to be.

And the fearfull and troubled Pa­rent, may perhaps, go aside into a melancholy place, and there despe­rately cry: O, for my poor chil­drens sakes, that I had been born a Jew before Christ, and expected him in Figures: this my latter having him in Substance, is dangerously pre­judiciall to my dear flesh and bloud-Babes.

Rachel in the Orientall Langua­ges Hebr. Syr. Chald. is interpreted a Sheep or Lamb; and a Lamb or Sheep was aptly and suteably call'd up to lament, weep, and Mat. 2. 18. [Page 223] mourn over Innocent Lambs. Indeed every Christian Mother, if know­ing and not unnaturall, (I exclude Anabaptists,) would be a Rachell, a sheep, and, in this great contest be­twixt Love and Fear, mourn, weep and lament over her Lambs.

And whereas it is the observati­on of Franzius, that the Sheep or Franzius in Ove. Lamb, useth, in the sensuall moti­ons of Joy and Sorrow, but one bleating [...]one, and that one a plea­sant-one: Griefe would invent ma­ny sad and unpleasant Tones in those Rachels or Sheep.

And the perswasions of the most Spirituall Men, would not other­wise prevaile with them, than the Odours applied to Persons in a Fit of the Falling Sicknesse; which happily recover them out of the Fit, but are unfit to discharge the Dis­ease, or fitly prevent the casuall Re­currence of it: Because their Griefs would under the Supposition and consequence of this Case, be rationall. For: it would be apparent, that the Course of Divine Ordinances was interrupted: And therefore, like Rachel, they would not be Comfor­ted.

And as, according to the Dis­course Scholastici. of School Divines, if God should reveal to a Man his Dam­nation; he might lawfully despair: So if this neglect of divine provision for Infants, now only under the Gospell, were a reveal'd Truth; Parents would think (justly or un­justly, my reverentiall Fear of God will not suffer me to define) them­selves dealt with hardly, strangely, preposterously: and the Thoughts a­rising, would raise and beget irregu­lar and immoderate Sorrow.

I doe not justifie these com­plaints, or Griefs: But I maintain, that God cannot give a just cause of Griefe, or complaint against him; and that the Matter of this Case, thus put into Form; is impossible: and therefore the thing is impossible, which is dreined from it, as heer, not only ex Vi suppositionis, but al­so, ex Vi consequcntiae petitae quasi ex rei naturâ.

CHAP. LX.

NOte. The Baptism of Infants is not commanded expressly & interminis; though the Circumcision of them, was expressely commanded, and by a positive Law. Because the Thing which materially occasions a particular nomination, or branch of injunction in a Law, is a particular Case and condition: which conditi­on and Case are not in Baptism; it being set open to all sorts and condi­tions.

And in Types there is need of ex­presse Descension to particulars; be­cause the Rule of the Type, is the first Rule: In Antitypes there is not the same need; (because the Antitype is, in some fashion, regulated by the Type:) especially, where there is a notable variation in the Anti­type, by the which, it is widen'd and made large for the free recepti­on and admittance of all persons, as here there is: Circumcision being appliable to Males only, and Bap­tism agreeable with all.

And though Females were not [Page 226] Virtually Circumcised in their Pa­rents; yet some command they did undergoe, answearable to their Kind, as Circumcision answer'd to the Males in their Kinde, and having the same end with it; which toge­ther with Circumcision, thaw'd and resolv'd it selfe into Baptism.

Moreover: What need is there of a new-moulded and expresse Com­mand for Infants, when the old command in regard of the Substance of it, that is, as it substantially and essentially imports a divine Remedy against Originall sin, according to the old works and warpings of Cor­rupt Nature, inherent in our Chil­dren; it being more than the meer Privation of Originall Justice: is not antiquated, but still in ancient force and ability?

As [...]e have now no need of an expresse Commandement, for the kee­ping of the Lords Day; because the old Memento Commandement, is quoad substantiam, yet in force; though the Church hath intermed­led in the Circumstance of Time, for the Commemoration of the new Crea­ture rising from his own Nothing, [Page 227] with Christ in whom he hath all Things: the Substance and Morali­ty of the Commandement, remai­ning immoveable; which obligeth us necessarily and substantially to the keeping holy of one Day in seven.

Whence in the most Primitive Tract of Apostolicall Times, the Syriacke, Arabick, Greek and Ro­man Calendaria Syriaca, Arabica, Graeca, Romana, antiqua. Calenders did equally reverence the Jewish Sabbath and our Lord's Day: (and I cannot cover as I go, the Wind blows it open, that the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord and Sa­viour Jesus Christ, the naturall Son of God by his eternall Generation, and temporally, conceived by the Ho­ly Ghost, and born of the Virgin Ma­ry; is found as ancient in these Ca­lenders, as our Lord's Day.)

Let our Anabaptists therefore, take to Heart, that in generall Precepts and Laws, the numeration of special Kinds or Matters, is not only not necessary, but also supervaneous, and praeter mo­rem, besides the course and custome of generall Laws; such especially which have been in any sort former­ly modelized.

CHAP. LXI.

HEre is the Place and seat of my last chiefe Argument arguing from Consonancy. The Seal of the Covenant belongs to all those who belong to the Covenant: the Seales following alwaies the Right and Propriety. And Children supplied with the Faith of the Church, (as al­so, the children under the Law were,) belong to the Covenant.

For: when God covenanted with Abraham for him and his Posterity, he consigned the Covenant with Circumcision: which having a Spiri­tuall reference, not only as referring to Spirituall Circumcision in respect of the Persons circumcised, but also as referring to a Circumcision without hands under the Law of Christ; re­ceived the Gentiles into the Cove­nant by Spirituall Adoption: And, as Mr Tombs honestly granteth: Mr Tombs in his Exa­men. The Covenant was the same in all A­ges, in respect of the Thing promised, and Condition of the Covenant, which we may call the substantiall and essen­tiall part of the Covenant: that is: in [Page 229] the Abstract. But he dishonestly substracts the Covenanters or con­federates, who, on our part, as elected and called, or, as call'd only, are also necessarily included in the Concretion of it.

The Covenant is exhibited in a short Scheme: which notwithstan­ning, is the Magna Charta, or great Charter of God's free Mercy in Christ: And I will establish my Cove­nant Gen. 17. 7. between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their Generations, for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee: that is: thy seed after thee by flesh and blood; or by spirit and Faith only; that it may be an everlasting Covenant; and that the Covenant may comprehend all them, unto whom I shall be a God, and in whom I shall be apprehended by Faith, or by Faith here and hereafter by Visi­on.

And hence Isaac was Circumci­sed on the eighth day: And hence a­gaine, the Apostle St Paul first, to Rom. 4. 13. the Romans: For the promise that he should be the Heir of the World, was not to Abraham, or to his seed [Page 230] through the Law: but through the righteousnesse of Faith: and as he was the Father of all the Faithfull. V. 16. And the Promise being made to him and his Seed, under a Spirituall Con­sideration, was therefore made to him as he was a Spirituall Father, and to his Seed as they were his Children Spiritually; and therefore, all comming within the reach of this federal and pious consideration, fall into the pious Arms of the Covenant. Secondly, to the Galathians: Know ye therefore, that they which are of Gal. 3. 7. Faith, the same are the Children of Abraham.

Wherefore Zacheus, after his Justification, was presently stiled a Son of Abraham. And when the Luk. 19. 9. Jews soared in their Thoughts, be­cause they were the Children of A­braham according to the flesh; it came inauspiciously upon them, to be called by John the Baptist, a Ge­neration Mat. 3. 7. of Vipers; and to hear the reason of their being called so, Think Verse 9. not to say within your selves, we have Abraham to our Father; he depres­sing them with a tacit reflection up­on other children, in the very con­sideration [Page 231] wherein they exalted themselves.

The Apostle St Peter speaks con­sonantly to the Jewes: For the Pro­mise Act. 2. 39. is unto you, and to your Chil­dren, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall Reade Eph. 2. call: that is: afar off in the Series and order of Generation, as being yet in the loines of their Parents, and afterwards▪ to be born; or, in distance of Affection, as the unbelee­ving Jewes and ignorant Gentiles.

Severus the Emperour (my Au­thor is Lampridius) had in his first Lamprid. in Alexandr [...] Severo. Lararium, the Images of Christ and Abraham, to which, every mor­ning, as Pontifex Maximus, he sacri­ficed▪ but he did not know or wor­ship Christ aright, neither was he a Faithfull Child of Abraham.

Now Children being involv'd in these Generations under the old Law; and these Generations yet continuing: must pertain as truly to the Cove­nant under the new Law.

The Adversary may raise a dust or a mud, in darkning and dirtying Scripture with corrupt Interpretati­ons: as nothing is so notum in se a [...]t [Page 232] nobis notum▪ clear in it selfe or clear to us, but something may be said against it. Yet: Maledicta Glossa quae corrumpit Textum: Cursed is the Glosse, which corrupts the Text.

CHAP. LXII.

I Confirme it, first: by St Paul's Rom. 8. 30. Order of Predestination: Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justi­fied: and whom he justified, them heal­so glorified. Here we have wholly gi­ven into our Hands Virgula divinâ, that every predestinated Person in the Generations of Abraham, is called, is justified, is glorified: & in the contra­ry consideration, that no person is glorified, except he be first justified; that no person is justified, except he be first called; and that no person is called [...], according to V. 28. Text. Graec. purpose, except he be first predestina­ted.

Now we cannot possibly discover or imagine a Vocation or calling with relation to Infants, but by Bap­tism: Because then only, they will be rightly said to be called, when [Page 233] they are actually ascribed into the number of those who are called; as then only, they will be actuall Co­venanters, when they have been signed with the Seal of the Cove­nant. Neither are they capable of any other Vocation; as neither, of any other Seal. And either they are not predestinated; and shall not be glo­rified, if they dye being Infants: or they are called by Baptism, and justified by the Vertues infused, Jo. 3. v. 3. & 7. [...], from above into them in it.

If you fly to and take refuge at, extraordinary Vocations in Ordinary Courses; you disesteem God's Ordi­nances as curt, and not carved pro­portionably to all ordinary Conditions: when Order cannot consist without Proportion.

In Lucian's Philopatris▪ wherein Luciani Philopatris. the Interlocutors make it their grand Affair, to dishonour the Worship, Rites and Manners of Christians; they might have justly cast out a scorn upon such an out cast Vacuum in Religion as this is.

And if you repeat, that Children ordinarily dye before Baptism; then [Page 234] will they of the School reply with­out Schelastici. stammering, that such are not called. If you ask: will the Mercy of God looke besides a Child, because men looke not after it as they ought, or because chances impede the reli­gious endeavours of Men? They will answer: One Attribute of God doth nothing in prejudice of ano­ther: And therefore, his Mercy doth not any thing in opposition to his Providence: that God may be con­formable to himselfe in his Works; and that men may be conformable to God in his Ordinances.

CHAP. LXIII.

I Confirm it, secondly: The Scrip­tures irrefragably, and manifoldly manifest: That there can be no juste­fication, without Faith. Therefore either Infants have habituall Faith, by the which they are justified; or, being Infants, they are totally aver­ted from justification.

It is truly supposed, that actuall Faith doth not justifie: and it is just­ly and actually granted, that Infants have not actuall Faith: Because [Page 235] as Grace perfects Nature, so it first supposes Nature, quatenus Perfectio supponit perfectibile, in regard that the Perfection of a Thing supposes the Thing to be perfected by it; and as it supposes the being of it, so likewise that it be like-behaviour'd: and therefore, there cannot be actuall Faith, where there is not actuall use of the naturall powers; and where the Understanding, being the Power or Faculty wherein Faith resides, cannot move in the Sense wherein Motus Intellectus est intelligere, the Motion of the Understanding is to Understand.

And actuall Grace requires a like­nesse in the Subject, not only in re­spect of the naturall Act, but also, of the naturall Aptitude; which, re­spectively to heavenly Things, is not an early-riser in Children though graciously habited.

If it be thrown in my face: With­out Heb. 11. 6. Faith it is impossible to please him: for he that commeth to God, must beleeve that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him: But a Child doth not be­leeve that God is, or, that he is a [Page 236] rewarder of them that diligently seek him: And yet, without this Faith, saith the Apostle, it is impossible to please God. I answer: These are the Acts of Faith: and therefore, the Apostle speaks here of grown Per­sons, and of actuall Faith, without which it is impossible that Persons having the right use or understan­ding, should rightly please God.

For: Christ and his Apostles, in their commending the Acts of Faith, as such, and to the people; chiefly considered two things.

First: that there are some works, which are done viribus naturae, by the strength of Nature, and sine spe­ciali Dei Auxilio, without the spe­ciall Help of God; and that these were the works of which the Phi­losophers boasted: and that there were other works, wch having been commanded in the old Law. were now acted without explicit Faith in Christ; and that the grown Jews pre­somed upon these works: And there­fore, they weaned the people from the works of Nature, and of the Law: and grounded them upon an apprehensive and active Faith in [Page 237] Christ, without which they could not please God.

Secondly: they considered, that Faith is Principium, Fundamentum, & Radix nostrae Justificationis, The Beginning, Foundation, and Root of our Justification; and, as being active, our formall Justification; be­cause Charity is the Life and Form of of Faith: And that one thing may be the Beginning of an other Thing, of the which it is not the Foundati­on; and the Foundation of a Thing, of the which it may not be the Root: And that a Beginning, as a Beg [...]n­ning, doth but begin a Thing; a foundation supports the thing which it founds; A Root, not only supports, but also influit esse, gives being to another Thing by influx: And, Prin­cipium radicale virtute continet re­liqua, A radicall Beginning, virtu­ally contains the Things, of which it is the Beginning: And that Faith acting by Charity, was therefore necessary to the Salvation of the People: which Action is in Covenanted Chil­dren, by virtuall suppliance; their Sanctification being only intended for the present.

If any man shall assault me thus, quasi palmario Argumento, as with a chiefe and Victory-portending Ar­gument: Fides non justificat quate­nus Fides est, aut credit; sed quate­nus operatur: quia etiamsi credat, aut sit Fides: si non operetur, non justifi­cat: Faith doth not justifie, as it is Faith, or, as it beleeves; but as it works: for, although it beleeves, or, is Faith; yet, if it works not, it justi­fies not: it being like fire, which doth not enliven, as it shines or gives light; but, as it heats: and there­fore we say from the mouths of the Philosophers, Calor vivificat, Heat Philosophi. Vide Ed­mundum Campia­num in de­cem Ratio­nibus. enlivens: And though some have given to Children, pulsus abditos Fidei, actuall Faith acting inwardly as the pulse doth; yet no Divine will divinely say, that Faith in Infants acteth by Charity: And although Justification be attributed to Faith, by the Rule, Quod natum est ex plu­ribus sequi, tribuitur ei quod est pri­mum: That which followeth of many Things, is commonly attributed to the first of them: Yet Faith justifies, as being alive; and, as being alive, works. I answer: This Argument [Page 239] fights altogether, for the Faith of un­derstanding and grown Persons: and if it wins the Field, I lose it not: And: Faith in Children, is not dead, though it works not; the fault being in the Organ, with regard to within and without.

CHAP. LXIV.

I Confirm it, thirdly: St Paul wri­teth Eph. 5. 25. 26. to the Ephesians: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himselfe for it: That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word. Where it is perspicuous; that either Infants are of the visible Church, and partakers of her Faith; or, that Christ did not give himselfe for them: and also, that those for whom he gave himselfe, he sanctifies and cleanses with the washing of water by the Word: the water and the word being the outward part of the Sacra­ment; and the Sacramentall Sense, being the literall Sense of this place; though the Adversary would have hoop't it up, to the washing of the word preached; untill his Hoops brake and [Page 240] flew about his ears, and the water being left, leapt into his face.

And the visible Church is here meant, because the visible Church is the Church which is invisibly sancti­fied and cleansed with the Visible wa­shing of Water by the Word.

And because the water and Word in these words, concern Children: the Admonition is conveniently di­rected to Husbands, who are exhor­ted to love their Wives; this Love being the pious occasion, that Chil­dren are born to the Church.

In the which exhortation agree­ably, the Baptizing of Infants is im­plicitely Theologi in primam, & secuudam partem D. Thomae. Vide S. Hi­eronymum adversus Jovinianü, Vigilanti­um, &c. commanded.

Now, the Divines put it to the Question, An Deus jubeat impossibi­bilia? Whether or no, God Commands impossible Things? And they gene­rally, answer negatively. Their Com­manding Reason is: Because if God should command impossible Things, ageret praeter finem Mandati, qui est, ut servetur: he would work besides the end of the Commandement, which is, that it may be kept. And here, is Ignorance, Imprudence, want of Pow­er, and Unrighteousnesse, in one left­hand-cast [Page 241] of the Anabaptist, cast up­on God. For: in his Legislation, he commands and appoints a Thing; which, as the Anabaptist mutters, for the unfitnesse and incapacity of the Subject, to which the Action in the appointment, is appointed to point; neither ought nor can be done, according to Appointment.

CHAP. LXV.

NOte. The federall, adherent, ex­trinsecall, relative, and Cove­nant. Holinesse, transmitted from the last Age to Posterity, and grounded 1 Cor 7. 14. upon St Paul; and which is com­monly distinguished against inter­nall, inherent and Personall Holinesse: is not fashionable to this purpose, or, of the same colour with it. And, Mr Tombs in his Exa­men. as Mr Tombs judiciously censures it, the ancient Writers knew it not.

For: this federall Holinesse, as it is ordinarily expounded, walks by the sides of the Parents; who are, many times, unbeleevers, and formall Denyers of God in their Works, and therefore, cannot qualify their Chil­dren, being also Children of Wrath, for Baptism.

And though, in such a Case, the verticity of the point moves to the Faith of the Church; yet neither this Faith concurrs to the Holinesse of a Child in order to Happinesse (as we speak here of Holinesse,) without application; which is by Ordinance.

And what shall be said of those young raw Catechumeni, the Jewish Children, Baptized by Athanasius in his childhood, as he was playing the Bishop on the Sea-shoare: which Baptism was pronounced firm and Sacrament-strong, by Alexander Bishop of Alexandria, and his lear­ned Assistants; and was pinned upon the Record, by Ruffinus, Nicephorus, Ruffin. Ec­cles. Hist. lib. 1. cap. 14. and others?

Our Christian Monuments and Annals have many potent Exam­ples, that urge accordingly.

And if a Paganish Infant-Orphan be brought by Providence to be edu­cated, all the time of his Pupillage by a Christian: shall he not be pre­sently Baptized; when the Patria Potestas, Fatherly Power over him, is now untterly dissolved?

Farther yet: The Covenant con­firmed by the Blood of Christ, is [Page 243] more ample, and of more efficacy, than the Promise to Abraham as such: Wherefore if the Child offe­red, be in a condition, that the Under­takers can perform their Promise; there can be no injury where the Right leans towards God, and when the Sacramentall Ordinance is ope­ned to all Nations.

And if an innocent Child should be thrown aside from Baptism, hôc ipso, by this very thing, that he is not born of Christian Parents; the child should be hardly used, and it would hardly, yea verily, it would never be soundly explicated; wherein the largenesse and plentifullnesse of the Gospell with relation to Infants, doth consist.

And here is no repugnance op­pugning us from the want of Chri­stian Parents: because the Christian Suseeptores adopt such children, and are loco Parentum.

CHAP. LXVI.

I Now set forward to prove the Baptism of Infants by Reason, and to send the Text assistance from the God of Nature: Reason as Aquinas D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. a. 8. ad 2. teaches, being subservient to Faith; as the naturall Inclination of the will is to Charity.

I prove it, first: There is a perfect Congruity and Conformation of Things in this Ordinance, with refe­rence to Children: Which Infers a Congruity, if not a Necessity of their being Baptized. As thus: There is requir'd in grown Persons an actuall Disposition to Baptism, by actuall Faith; for two Reasons. The first is: Because they are defiled by actuall sins; which they have added wil­fully, to their Originall Transgressi­on: Sins which are committed by the actuall aversion of our wils from God, naturally and symmetrically as­king, if they be remitted, the actuall Conversion of our wils to God. The second is: Because God acts with all Things according to their Na­tures; and therefore, the reasonable [Page 245] creature having the use of Arbitri­ment; & wanting to be justified, is not justifi'd by God, except he concurs by free and actuall Assent. But neither of these Causes hath place in Infants; they having only an habituall Aver­sion, which may be removed by the infused Habit of Theologicall Chari­ty; and they having sinned, not by their own wils, but by the will of another, and it being therefore even and equall, that they should be relie­ved by the wils of others: Which is most proportionable to our way, Guidance, and Prudence, (we divi­ding to all, all Things agreeably to them, by an Act of distributive Justice informed with Prudence,) be­ing the Way of Humane Reason; and to God's Way and Government, being the way of Divine Provi­dence.

Wherfore St Austin speaks, as reaso­nably S Aug: Serm. 10. de verbis Apost. so divinely: Accommodat illis Mater Ecclesia aliorū pedes, ut veni­aut; aliorū Cor, ut credant, aliorum lin­guam, ut fateantur: ut quoniam quòd aegri sunt, alio peccante praegravantur; sic cùm sani fiant, alio confitente sal­ventur: Our Mother the Church lends [Page 246] and fits to Infants the seet of others, that they may come to the Font (which presented it selfe at the Doore, be­cause Baptism is the Doore into the Church;) the Heart of others, that they may bele [...]ve; the Tongue of o­thers, that they may confesse: to the end, that as they are made sick and weighed downewards by the sin of a­nother, so by the confession of another they may be restored to Health saved, and carried upwards.

CHAP. LXVII.

I Prove it, secondly: (which Proof may serve as a perfect Confirmati­on of the former:) The Doctrine of St Hierom is pure Divinity, and like S. Hieron. ep. ad Da mas. exalied Metall: Peccantes recedunt à Deo, Affectuum, non Locorum Spati­is: Sinners recede from God, by the distance of Affection, not of Place.

And the Reason is at the next Doore. God is every where; though not repletive, repletively, and circum­scriptivè, circumscriptively, as a Bo­dy is in a place, which possesses a place, and so fils it, that it excludes another Body out of the same place; [Page 247] and which is circumscribed: nor definitivè, definitively, as the Angels, who are so determined to a place, that if they be here, they are not else­where at the same time: yet attincti­vè, attinctively, quia atting it ubique, saith Cajetan, because he touches eve­ry Cajet. in p. 1. q. 1. a. 10. where; as conserving and holding all Things up by the touch of his Power; and impletivè, impletively, according to his own Testimony of Himselfe in his Prophet, Caelum & terram ego impleo, I fill Heaven and Jer. 23. 24. Earth; and so, he is totus in toto Mundo, & totus in qualibet parte Mundi, All in all the World, and all in every part of the World; and so also, he is All with all his Essence and Power out of the World in Vacuo, wherein he can create more Worlds at his pleasure: and therefore, we should not locally or absentially de­part from him, though we could run out of the world.

Wherefore we likewise return to God, versis Vestigiis, in the very same Way, non Spatiis Locorum, sed Affectuum, not by the Spaces of Pla­ces, but by the motions, Pases, and fo [...] ­tings of our Affections; not our Per­sons, [Page 248] but our Affections drawing neer to him, and those, not in a Physicall or naturall, but in a morall and ethi­call Consideration.

And this our return to God being every where, yea, this only, is proper to us in respect of our Departure, and of the Nature and possibility of the Thing, and pleasing to God in re­spect of his Acceptance: Because this only, is proportionable to our De­parture in the removall of it, and to our Duty in repairing the breach made by our Departure: And there­fore, having departed, only after that manner; after this manner only, by the Rule of Proportion, we re­turn.

Now when we recede from God who is every where, by the Affecti­ons of others, as in Originall sin; it is likewise, most proportionable and orderly, and therefore, most proper to us in regard of our Departure in the manner of it, and most pleasing to God in regard of his Acceptation, yea, only proper and pleasing, as be­ing only proper to the Nature and possibility of the Thing; that we should return to God by the Affecti­ons [Page 249] of others, if we have not the use of our own.

CHAP. LXVIII.

I Prove it, thirdly: God hath won­derfully ordained, that as Children are not capable of the qualification of grown Persons; so neither should they need it.

I have proved, that they need not actuall Charity, and consequent­ly, neither actuall Faith, by way of Remedy; because they have not actu­ally sinned. (Truly: though a grown Man should not actually sin after Baptism; yet he should need actuall Faith and actuall Charity; but he should not need them in Remedium, as a Remedy.)

And moreover, Children should not need actuall Repentance, al­though they should be able, in re­spect of their Powers, to Repent actu­ally: Because Originall sin in the Children of Adam, is not Materia Poenitentiae, Matter of Repentance:

Neither doth a Man, rightly repent of a sin which he never committed; & the position or opposition of which, did not lie within the Verge of his [Page 250] Power. To wch purpose, the Scrip­ture equitably saith of two Infants, Jacob and Esaw; neither having done Rom. 9. 11. any good or evill.

Therefore, according to the stipu­lation of sound Reason, there is ano­ther qualification of Infants, agree­able to their need; which can be no other than Baptism: God supplying abundantly, with his Remedies, all our Spirituall needs according to their exigence.

Chesed (a Scripture-Word) in the Hebrew Language, properly signi­fies Piety, by the which, a Man is pious, not only towards God, but al­so towards Men, and towards these, especially in the cravings of their Wants. And therefore, it signifies Pi­ety, as Piety is an infused Vertue: that is: Piety towards God for his own sake, and Piety towards Men for God's sake; or, a Piety towards Men, regulated by the Law of God. Hence Marinus, Forsterus, Pagninus [...]exicis. a good and Holy Man is called Cha­sid, pious; and a Stork, Chasida; as being a pious Bird towards it's Pa­rents; and as painfully, and, as it were, piously supplying their needs and wants in the ingruencies and [Page 251] strong Assaults of their feeblenesse; and as being therefore a Symboll of Piety.

If Men by a divine Regulation, pi­ously supply the wants one of ano­ther; and this, by a Participated Goodnesse or Piety: God, as being essentially good, (in which Sense, God only, is good,) much more sup­plies the Wants of his Creatures, especially of his reasonable Crea­tures, and of those, especially as he he sits at the Fountain-Head of the Supernaturall Order; wherein the Gifts are most excellent, and most excellently and plentifully commu­nicated; the End being most excel­lent, as being infinite, and the com­munication of an infinite Good finito Modo, after a finite manner, because the Subject is incapable of Infinity; and the Provider being infinitely a­ble, infinitely wise, infinitely merci­full.

Which consideration, in the rally­ing of every Argument, must bring up the Rere.

CHAP. LXIX.

I Prove it, fourthly: In the curing of naturall Diseases, we instruct a sick Man concerning the Circumstan­ces of his Recovery, and we exhort him to the use of the Meanes: Yet we doe not exhort him to be well, (which is the End;) but medicine him: Because the curing of his Dis­ease, and his well-making, are not in his own Power, but altogether in the power of God, and of the wise Physitian under God. And therefore, the Physitian cures Mad, Lunatick, and Lethargick Persons; that have no desire to be cur'd, and consequently, doe not confer their endevours towards it.

In the curing of Spirituall Disea­ses, we both instruct and exhort the sick Person, if he be capable of exhor­tation and instruction, because there is a Voluntary and Supernaturall Concurrence, absolutely requir'd on his part; and God infallibly perfor­meth his Promise, if the sick Person doth, in the strength of the Divine Helps, what in him lieth.

But, in the curing of naturall Dis­eases, We use not such Instructions or Exhortations, if the Patient hath not the right use of his Understan­ding and Senses: neither doth the Physitian wait or attend the time of his comming to them, but presently apply his best Helps.

Likewise in Supernaturall Wants and emptiness, with respect to which, God is the professed Physitian; we may not expect untill the Patient comes to the right use of Reason, but must help, as in the Case of pre­sent necessity, according to the Rule of Right Reason; which direct us to beleeve, that God is super excellent­ly provident, and more copious in every kinde of Help for Spirituall Cures, and for Cures wherein he is the immediate and only Physitian with sanative application to the Spi­rit; than he is for bodily Cures, where­by he works more mediately by o­thers, and more joynedly with them.

Therefore having also a reasona­ble and outward Ground for our in­ward Direction, in his Word, and in either Sense of it; we may, and must, (and are more bound to it,) apply [Page 254] our Helps, as we doe, in the Bapti­zing of Infants.

David tunes his old Harp to a new Psal. 102. 17. Text Hebr. Song: He will regard the Prayer of the destitute. In the Originall, the Words are high, though they are [...]ung with an humble Voice, and treat of a low Thing: Respexit ad Orationem Myricae: He hath lo [...]ked Targ. Jose­phi Caeci. backe, or, had respect to the Prayer of the low Shrub. The Targ: ad oratio­nem desolatorum, to the Prayer of de­solate Persons, The Septuagint: Hu­milium Sept. of the humble.

Doth God look back, or, hath God respect to the Prayer of one good Man in a low Estate? And doth he not accept of the Faith and Prayers of the whole Church, (which reser­veth continually, holy Prayers and pious Intentions, for such holy Works and pious Performances,) offered with the Application of a divine Ordinance, for these many low Child-Shrubs? these little Babes, desolate in the judgement of igno­rant Men; these humble Sweet-ones?

CHAP. LXX.

I Prove it, fiftly. The Church of God is like the Body of Man, (and is therefore called a Body,) as the Apostle teaches, who diversely ar­gues Rom. 12. 4. 5. and 1 Cor. 12. 12. and onwards. from the body of Man to the Church of God.

Now though Simile non est omnino Simile, Like is not altogether like; or, Simile non est Simile quoad omnia, Like is not like in all Things; And it be sufficient to the sufficiency of a Like, that it be grounded and ere­cted upon the position of one Conve­niency: yet the likenesse betwixt the Body of Man and the mysticall Body, is manifold; and stands unblasted and inviolate in respect of the Parts and Actions, by the which, the Body of Man is a compleate humane Body, and does the chiefe and necessary Actions of such a Body; the reser­vation of their Properties being sup­posed, namely, that the Parts and actions of the one are naturall, the parts and Actions of the other, Spi­rituall or mysticall: otherwise the mysticall Body could not be called in [Page 256] Scripture, a Body, with respect to such a Body.

Whence I argue. In the humane Body we see many and diverse kinds of Parts; whereof some live and have Sense, as the fleshly Parts; some live and have no sense, as the Bones; some neither live nor have sense, as our excrementitious Parts, the nailes and haires: So neither is it strange, or against the nature of a mysticall Body, but rather omnimo­dously agreeable to it, that there are some in the Church, who have Spi­rituall Life, and give sensible Effects of it, as good signes, (though they are not evident signes in respect of us;) these actually exercising Faith, Hope, and Charity: and some who live in­wardly, without any sensible mani­festation or appearance; as, Bapti­zed children, having only habituall Faith, Hope, and Charity: as there be some grown Persons, who have only Faith; and some also, who have neither actuall nor habituall Faith, but only, an externall and relative Conjunction with the Body.

I double the Files in this Mat­ter: that the Conveniency may be [Page 257] seen to be started at every turn. Spi­rituall Regeneration by Baptism, is like our carnall and bodily Condition in this meeting-Point: That as chil­dren in their Mothers Wombs, nei­ther live of themselves, nor carve or care for themselves, but live by a Soul given of God, and are sustei­ned in life by the nourishment of their mothers; so Children, which have not the use of Reason, being now in the Womb of the Church their Mother, receive Life and the Badge of Salvation, and the Seal of Spirituall Cure and Sustentation, not by themselves, but by the meer Gift of God and Act of the Church. It is the Office therefore of the Curers to cure them.

In Joël, where the English inocu­lates, call a solemn assembly; the Sep­tuagint Joël. 1. 14. preach [...], Sept. S. Dionys. de Eccles. Hier, c. 10▪ preach ye a Curation. Whence Dio­nysius the Areopagite names the Persons wholly devoted and addicted to God's Service, [...], Under­takers of Cures, or, Curers of them­selves and others.

If the Conveniencies betwixt the naturall and mysticall Bodies, be ma­ny [Page 258] and great; and one be, that the Parts of both, are sometimes ill-af­fected, and want Curation to be per­formed by the undertakers of Cures, or, by the Curers of themselves and others: it is the part of the Curers on both parties, to perform their parts in curing the diseased parts, un­der God who, as a Supernaturall Curer, is All in All; wholly belon­ging to their Cure,

CHAP. LXXI.

I Prove it, sixtly; All that are not Spirituall, are excluded from Hea­ved: Either therefore, all Infants dying without Baptism, are exclu­ded from Heaven, or, they are made Spirituall without Baptism: And they cannot be made Spiri­tuall in our Sense, but by the Communication of Spirituall Gifts; against the like Communication of which in Baptism, our Ana­baptists rebell.

Besides: If they be made Spiritu­all without Baptism; then is there in respect of Infants, a divine Election [Page 259] amongst equall Things (which di­vine Election, as divine Judgement, pertains to divine Wisdome;) and God Elects and receives absque fun­damento in Re posito, & ante praevi­sionem Operum, without any Diffe­rence and Foundation in the Thing; and without any variation on their part, in regard of our Christian Du­ties, or application to God's Ordi­nances.

Again: Either all Unbaptized children are saved, or some are sa­ved, and some, accordingly to the Concessions and Confessions of the Anabaptists, damned to everlasting Torments and Perdition; and their Perdition is of God, and not of them­selves: which enterfeers with the Text; O Israell, thou hast destroyed Hos. 13. 91 Edit. Ʋulg. thy selfe; or, as the Vulgar Edition, Perditio tua ex te, O Israel, O Isra­ell, thy Perdition is of thy selfe: which Text with our Context, our ablest Independents grant animo Volen­te, Volently, and Violently Pulpit for.

And if this Consequence, (which with the rest, proceeds ex falso Sup­posito,) were true; the Presbyterians [Page 260] or strict Calvinists would cristas attollere, lift up their Crests and Combs; and continue their unnatu­rall and exotick Interpretations upon the old Proverbiall Sentence: The Prov. 16. 4. Lord hath made all things for him­selfe: yea, even the Wicked for the Day of Evill Which the Hebrew Text. Hebr. hands forth: Omnes operatus est Je­hovah propter se: improbum ad Di­em mali: Jehovah hath made all Per­sons for himselfe: the wicked Man to the Day of Evill. And which the English Presbyterians English: God hath made all Things for himselfe: yea: the Wicked for the Day of Judg­ment and eternall Damnation: pou­ring, as it were, by the carriage of an Indian, upon God, that he makes the much-greater and massier Part of Men, Women and Children, of purpose to Damn them: Whenas this good Proverb speaks of the Evill Day of temporall Punishment: which accor­ding to the Hebrew Dialect, is called the Day of Evill; or, as the Septua­gint Sept. oftentimes, [...], of afflicti­on or afflictation. Or: If they will draw the Text to the punishments of Hell: Then must they draw with it, [Page 261] that God made indeed, the Wicked for the Day or Time of Evill, inten­tione secundariâ, with a secundary in­tention, and having fore-looked upon them in the Evils of their sins,

And thus, the Ends here, God and the Day of Evill as executing the good Justice of God, are, as we term it in Logick, Fines subalterni. And when God made the Wicked Man for the Day of Evill, he made him for Himselfe: Because when he punishes him with temporall or eter­nall punishments, he glorifies himselfe in his executive justice: And the wic­ked man falling by Death from under the Order of his Mercy, fals under the Death-Order of his Justice,

Now God cannot absolutely Or­daine a Wicked Person for this good End, the glorification of the divine Justice by his eternall punishment: first: Because this Ordination would Eclipse his Goodnesse, and his very Nature: And secondly: Because he should then, be contrary to his own Sanctity, and absolutely Ordain the wickednesse of the Wicked Person, as such: the absolute Ordination of which, would, by a necessity derived [Page 262] from the Ordination, bring it neces­sarily into Being. And: Non est facien­dum malum vel minimum, ut eveniat bonum vel maximum: The least E­vill S [...] Rom. 3. 8. may not be done, that the greatest good may come of it. For: Though in the Evils of Punishment, we may lawfully chuse the lesser: because the lesser Evill, tnuc indueret rationem Boni; would then put on the State or Nature of a Good; as we may rather chuse the losse of our Goods, than of our Lives: yet Malum Culpae quate­nus tale est, nunquam potest habere rationem Boni; The Evill of sin, as such, can never put on or have the Nature or state of a good: Neither can a good End moralize or sanctifie an Evill Action.

CHAP. LXXII.

I Prove it, lastly: The naturall work of Baptism, answerable to the Word, (the best and most primitive Words, signifying the Natures of Things,) and to the Signe: is, to wash. And Children greatly need Spiritu­all washing; as being greatly defiled with the first sin of their first Pa­rents. [Page 263] Therefore Baptism, which is a Sacramentall Washing and the first Sacrament; greatly agrees with them, as not being yet washed; And is not in vain with respect to Chil­dren.

Frustrà est quod non potest habere suū usū: that is in vain which cannot have its use: As Aquinas expounds D Thom. comment. in A [...]stot. l. 1. de Coelo Text. 12. upō Aristotle's Axiom, Deus & na­tura nihil frustrà faciunt, God and Nature do nothing in vain. Which Axiom thus expounded hath a far­ther aim, yet, clearly windes up, and proves, that even the actuall use of Baptism belongs to Infants.

And: If the Thing which is or­dained for all who are touchable by the Faith of the Church; may not, by reason of humane Restraint, be communicated to the Little-ones, which are many: there follows up­on wheels, that the Restainers ren­der it uselesse and vain with respect to the many Little-ones at the least: and that although God will make nothing in vain; yet men make vain the will of God: Which likewise, all unbeleeving Parents, in respect of their Children; and all Unbeleevers, [Page 264] in regard of themselves doe, Bap­tism being ordain'd for all that want it: and all wanting Baptism that want Baptismall Grace: and all wan­ting Baptismall Grace that want to be washed from Originall sin: and all wanting to be washed from Ori­ginall sin who are desiled with it.

These Arguments are such as the Substration of the Matter will bear. For: we cannot, in this place even­tilate Reasons from the Definition or Nature of a Sacrament, or from the Effects of Baptism, in themselves, and in the proper Houses and Places wherein, as the Planets, they have their plenary Power. Because these things being Spirituall, mysticall and Lidden; our naturall Reason cannot give an exact estimat of them, or bring them forth to the most per­fect discernment & avowance of the reasonable Man: And as Revelation first supposes Reason: so Reason af­terwards, in her Discourses of revea­led Things, supposes Revelation; and sometimes, walks only by the walls and Edges of it. And for the same Reason, we are unfurnished of Demonstrations both à Priori and à [Page 265] Posteriori; that is; Cause-Demon­strations, and Demonstrations by the Effects. Yet: we have Reasons of the second Order and Metal & of the Silver-kinde: which are perfectly urging, (so say the Logicians,) where Demonstrations cannot be had.

CHAP. LXXIII.

LET my Standard be now set up, at the Doctrine and Praxis of the Church in Primitive Ages.

Because there is no expresse Pre­cept in Scripture, saying, Go, and Bap­tize Infants; no President in plaine Terms, saying, They Baptized Chil­dren; no clear Promise, promising clearly, Many Benefits shall accrue to Baptized Children, many to the Bap­tizers of them; or the like: the Church gave to the Baptizing of Infants the Name of an Apostolicall Tradition: Which we therefore understand, with respect to the expressenesse of Precept, President, Promise.

In a generall Sense, and much used anciently; the whole Body of the new Testament, is an Apostolicall Tradition; and in a speciall Sense, [Page 266] some speciall Truths of it: That, in See 2. Thes. 2. 15. our Sense, is an Apostolicall Traditi­on, which was deliver'd by the Apo­stles to the Church, and is not found expressely in divine Scripture, though it be expressely found and extant in the writings of Apostolicall Men in Apostolicall Times: Or: That is an Apostolicall Tradition, which hath many faire and excellent Cha­racters in divine Scripture; but hath it's explicitnesse or expressenesse from Apostolicall Precepts, Practises, Pro­mises, warranted to the Apostles by Christ their Master, which are Un­scriptur'd.

The Baptizing of Infants, being thus received by such Tradition: the Disciples of the Apostles preached it in their Sermons, (it fell from their lips in the first warmth of the Gos­pell, like sweet Gumms from the Trees of Arabia heated by the Sun;) the Fathers of the Church published it in their writings; the holy Coun­cils Canonized it; and it became a Starrified Truth, or, a Truth of the Firmament.

And as Vincentius Lyrinensis thun­der-strikes the Hereticks of his Time: [Page 267] Quid unquam aliud Conciliorum De­cretis Vinc [...]nt. Ly­rinens. con­tra Haeres: cap. 32. enisa est, (scilicet Ecclesia,) nisi, ut quod anteà simplicitèr crede­batur, hoc idem posteà dil [...]gentiùs crederetur? What other Thing at any Time, hath the Church endeavou­red in the Decrees of the Councils, than that the Things which were simply beleeved should afterwards be beleeved with more diligence?

And this Truth thus extracted, being as such, more than a humane Truth, is no lesse than a divine Truth. For: As the Art or Invention which removes a Thing from Earth, must needs exalt it neerer to Hea­ven; and the farther from Earth, still the neerer to Heaven: So a Testimo­ny comming from God to us through Sanctified Persons; if it be more than humane, must needs be, in some sort, divine: and it comming through Persons divinely inspir'd, and infalli­bly directed; the higher it is raised from the consideration of being hu­mane, the more divine will it be.

And if such a Testimony, were not Apostolicall, but only Ecclesiasticall; even such an Ecclesiasticall Testimo­ny, endowed with all it's Perfections [Page 268] and Formalities, would be formally Divine.

CHAP. LXXIIII.

IN this purified Sense, St Dionysi­us Areopagita, who lived in the first Century, and was the Disciple of St Paul, as having been his Con­vert at Athens: affirms to be deli­vered S. Dionys. Arcop. lib Eccl. Hier. cap. ult. part. ult. Author Quaestionū ad Ortho­dox [...]s, quaest. 56. by the Apostles, that Infants should be Baptized.

The same thing is Orthodoxly taught by the Author of the Questi­ons ad Orthodoxos: who also, after some discussion and bandying of the Businesse, concludes in the rebound, that Baptized Infants are saved, un­baptized Infants are not saved; lea­ving us to save our selves as we can. And though Justin Martyr be not the Author of this Booke; it ca­ling into the Court, Irenaeus, Origen, the Manichees: Yet the Author is confessed by all Authors, to be very ancient and of great reputation.

And Justin Martyr himselfe be­ing S Just. M [...]rt in D [...]al [...]g. cum. T [...]yp [...]e Judaen. p. 2. prop [...]s. 3. a Noble Member of the second Century, and contemporary with St John, and therefore well familiariz'd [Page 269] with Apostolicall Practise: declares himselfe like-minded, in his Dia­logue with Tryphon the Jew.

Irenaeus also, an honourable Ex­tract S. Lenaeus contra Hae­ret. l. 2. c. 39 of the same Century, honoura­bly mentions the Baptizing of In­fants.

In the third Century, we have O­rigen; who having alleadged the Words of the Prophet, Psal. 51. 5. Behold, I was shapen in in quity, and in sin did my Mother conceive me: follows the motion of his matter thus: Propter hoc Ecclesia ab Apos­tolis Orig. lib. 5. Homil in c. 6. ap Rom. Trad [...]tionem accepit, etiam par­vulis dare Baptismum: For this rea­son, (namely because we are all con­ceived in sin,) the Church received a Tradition from the Apostles, enjoy­ning us to Baptize Infants. St Cyprian S. Cypr. Carthag. l. 3. Epist. 8. ad Fidum E­piscopum. was the Church-Pillar of Africa, in this Century: who together with a Councill of Carthage, consisting and bound together of 66 Bishops, as of so many strong Cartilages, whom he venerably cals his Collegues; deter­min'd, not only that Children might and ought to be Baptized, but also, that they might even before the eighth day: which was not app [...]ent [Page 270] and Crystal-clear to Bishop Fidus and his Church, in respect of the neernesse and complyance betwixt Circumcision and Baptism, and the Determination of the Councill ha­ving been occasioned thereby: which Determination St Cyprian recounts to Fidus.

CHAP. LXXV.

SAint Hierom witnesseth for us, S. Hierom. l. 3. contra. Pelagianos. S. Aug. l. 10. de Genesi ad literam, cap. 23. in the fourth Century. And St Augustine: who thus writeth: Con­suetudo Matris Ecclesiae in Bapti­zandis parvulis, nequaquam spernen­da est, ncc ullo modo superflua depu­tanda, nec omninò credenda nisi A­postolica esset Traditio: The Custome of our Mother the Church in Bapti­zing Infants, is not to be despised, nor in any sort deemed superfluous, neither at all to be beleeved except as an A­postolicall Tradition: St Austin im­bracing Apostolicall Tradition, as the unwritten word of God; and spea­king here, of beliefe built upon ex­presse Declaration of God's Word.

The same St Austin, to prevent the Insurrections of objection, devo­teth [Page 271] a Rule to the perfect knowing of an Apostolicall Tradition; and Reason in the Light of Nature be­holds the evidence of it: Quod uni­versa Idem. lib. 4. de Baptism [...] Parvulorum contra Do­natistas, cap. 23. tenet Ecclesia, nec Conciliis in­stitutum, sed semper retentum est, non nisi Authoritate Apostololicâ tradi­tum rectissimè credimus: That which the Universall Church holds, and was not insti [...]n [...]ed by Councils, but hath been alwaies retained; we most right­ly beleeve to have been deliver'd no otherwise than by Apostolicall Au­thority.

The same Father again, treating of this Ecclesiastical custome of Bap­tizing Infants, ascertains to us that it was Universall: Hoc Ecclesia sem­per habuit, sempèr tenuit; hoc à Ma­jorum Idem. Serm. 10. de Ver­ [...]is Apost. c. 2. fide percepit: hoc usque in fi­nem perseverantèr Custodit: This the Church always hath had, always hath held; this she received from the Faith and credit of our Ancestors; this she perseveringly keeps to the end.

Yea: the three tutelar Angels of the Church in their Times. St Hie­rom, St Augustine, and Prosper Aqui­tanicus, alwaies pres [...]e on, and put [Page 272] forward this Custome, in their Vi­ctorious S. Hieron. ubi Suprà. S Aug. Serm. 14. de verbis Apost. qui inscribitur, De Baptis­mo Parv [...] ­l [...]rum con­tra Pelagia­nos. Tom. 10. Item, l. 1. de Pecca­tor. merit. & remiss. c. 26. Prosper A­quitan. l. 2. de Vocatio­ne Gen. ium, cap. 8. Concil. Mi­levit. Can. 2. S. Greg. Naz o [...] at. in sanctum lavacrum. S. Basil. O­yat. Exhor­tatoriâ ad Baptismu [...]. S. Chrys [...]. Homil. 1. ad N [...]ophyto [...]. Disputations against the Pe­lagian Heresy, which denied Origi­nall sin.

CHAP. LXXVI.

IN the Year foure hundred eigh­teen. The Milevitan Councill, being a Provinciall of Africa; con­secrated this Canon: Placuit ut qui­cunque Parvulos recentes ab uteris Matrum Baptizandos negat, Ana­t [...]enia sit: It is the Pleasure of the Councill, that is, placuit spiritui sancto & nobis, It hath pleased the Holy Ghost and us, that whosoever denies Baptism to Infants newly born, be de­nounced an accursed Thing: The in­tendment is: whosoever denies Baptism to such at such a Time, as a Thing then alienated from their con­dition. Other Councils give the like Counsill afterwards.

I add St Gregory Nazianzen, St Basill, St Chrysostom. And I could add very many others. But these are sufficiently efficient. And this Do­ctrine thus grounded and mounded, is like the Laure [...]l, which stands [Page 273] firmly to it's Root, and is fresh, green, and glorious, amidst the vio­lent Careers, and hottest conslicts of Lightnings and Thunder-bolts with their obstinate Opposites: and when other Trees are weather­wasted and blasted, hath not a leafe impeached: and therefore, is worn on the Heads of the most conque­ring Conquerou [...]s.

The little Child which Jesus cal­led Mat. 18. 2. Vide Jan­sen. Harm. in Evang. Vide Eu­seb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 30. unto him, and set in the midst of his Disciples; was thought to be St Martiall; or St Ignatius, who testi­fies, that he saw Christ after his Re­surrection. St Martiall was named à Marte, from War, or Martiall Af­fairs and Discipline: and St Ignatius ab Igne, from Fire. Every Child that hath seen an Apostle, would be Martiall; and every Pen-and-Ink Horn-Boy, would be all Spirit and Fire, in the maintenance of Infant-Baptism; if it could be instilled into them; how credible this Object of our Faith is rendred by Antiquity.

CHAP. LXXVII.

IT is a ready Work now, for a Man of a selfe-moving and opinionated Conscience, unreasonably to distrust Authors that speak against him, (as Hereticks in all the retrograde Mo­tions and Hurlyburlies of Time, have distrusted and rent from the sincerity of the Canon, many fair parts of Scripture;) to bite the long-untainted Works of Ecclesiasticall Writers, den­te Sordido, with a Sordid Tooth; and to perform the rigid Command of Macchiavell and his rabid Academy; Macchia­vell. in Principe. Idem babet in Regno. Caluminare auda [...]tèr; saltèm aliquid adhaerebit, Caluminate thy betters boldly; some filth will adhere to them.

Indeed, and indeed: The Humour of such a Man (seeking himselfe and not God) is like Virtus formatrix, the formative or plastick virtue in Semine; which endeavours alwaies to shape the subjected Matter to it selfe.

And he that is truly [...], Act. 17. 18. Text. G [...]e [...]. Seminiverbius, a sower of words; may quickly disseminate into the people, [Page 275] that this Doctrine of Apostolicall Tradition will presently break the Barrs, and set all wide open; and that now the Communion of Infants may force a re-entry; the Easther of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus, may take up it's old quarters; and any man may recommand admittance, that brings with him the reviv'd opi­nion of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis, Schollar to St John, and Schoolfel­lowe to St Polycarp; and of his Fol­lowers, St Justin, St Irenaeus, Tertul­lian, S. Just. in Dialog. cum Tryphone. S. Hieron. in Catal [...]go Scriptorum Ecclesiast, Euseb. Eccl. Histor. l. 3. cap. 22. Lactantius, Apolinarius, and o­thers, going all in the foul way of the Millenaries: (which opinion was ac­cepted as from St John, but came, like a sudden Inundation, from Ce­rinthus, who pretended to have re­ceived it from the Angels: though as it was fomented and fermented by Cerinthus, it was more fleshly in the Adjuncts and Circumstances & gave after-Occasion to the Paradise of the Alcoran.)

But our Mark of an Apostolicall Tradition, which St Austin admi­nisters, and other Marks waiting in the Antecamera, and expecting to be call'd; will strongly keep the brazen doors against them.

And though English writers de­sire to touch this point with tender­nesse, and a Ladies Hand: yet in verity, if Apostolicall Tradition must be housed in the Almes-House, as miserably poor, and altogether su­perannuated; we may soon hook our selves in a collaterall Considera­tion. For: If it be objected: The like, or greater Dangers wait the writ­ten Books: As: Whether or no they were first delivered by the Apostles? Whether they were not corrupted by the Librarians, or others being He­reticks? Whether the Manuscripts were not perverted by the Malice or Ignorance of the Transcribers? our last Refuge must be the same, the Promise of God to his Church.

CHAP. LXXVIII.

THE Arguments, that struggle and tugg for Anabaptism, may now at last supervene and some­what infest our Text. Yet few there are that appear to go strongly, none go upon a sure foot: all being spider­web-Arguments; and wrought in the Light, to catch Flies; and as [Page 277] much excelled by the Arguments of the contrary part, as the poore yel­low Picture of the Sun in the ci [...]ling, is excelled by Gods greater Lumina­ry.

There are two much-opposite Hou­ses, opposite in themselves, and op­posed in Scripture: Bethel and Beth­aven. Bethel signifies, the House of God who is strong. Bethaven is inter­preted by Theodotion, the House of Theodor. Symmach. Aquila. Sept. Iniquity: by Symmachus and Aqui­la, the House of Nothing. The Sep­tuagint contract it by a Grammati­call Crasis, and square it forth Do­mus [...], in the opening of which, as wanting the fit & true key, the Greek Scholiast and Interpreters have long wearied and greatly tormented themselves.

Aven tied up or filed by Contract­ion, is on, which signifies Griefe or an Idol: and the House was called Bethon, because Jeroboam's golden Calfes were there worshipped.

Now the sāe Hebrew Non or Name which signifies an Idol & Wicked­nesse: signifies in Contraction, Labour and Griefe: because an Idol and Wickednesse are the causes of, and end [Page 278] in griefe and labour: And from Beth­aven the Idol-House and the House of Wickednesse; we remove to Be­thon, the House of Griefe both tem­porall and eternall.

The Arguments for the Baptizing of Infants, justly pertain to the House of God who is strong; and their strength as being divine, cannot be demolished. The contrary Argu­ments belong to Bethaven, the House of the Idol and of Wickednesse: and as they are wickedly set up, like golden Calves, to be worshipped; so they are every day righteously thrown downe like the senselesse Nothing in the Sense of Symmachus and Aquila, to the great griefe of the great and grievous Calves who set them up to be worshipped, and of the leaden Calves their Worshippers, who bow themselves down to Worship them.

And if their Authors ad Scholae Diatribas sisterentur, should be ci­ted to School-Exercise; they would soon effugere per posticum, sly away by the back Door.

They are for the most part, thrummed with Scripture-Texts shamelessly wryed, and caught up by [Page 279] them with a sleight; as imitating the vile artifice of our vagabond Jugglers, when by the means of an unseen Hair, they bring small bodies to them with a praestò. Which Text-Arguments I shall passe carelesly by, their nap being off, and they dismant­led already: one only excepted, which, as they have straw-stuft it, looks Saracen-big upon us. And from this, I shall step to that little which they presume to bubble up from the Dictates of Reason, and from Re­cords.

Some Arguments I have raised for them from the Foundation: and some I shall make, as I hitherto have, more strong as they stand up­on their Foundation; and velut amento mittere, as it were, sling­throw them.

CHAP. LXXIX.

THey argue first, from Scripture. Mar. 16. 16. He that beleeveth, and is Bapti­zed, shall be saved; but he that be­leeveth not, shall be damned. Here actuall Faith is required before Bap­tism; as a Requisite with Baptism, to Salvation.

I answer: If this Text excludes Infants from Baptism, then all In­fants dying in their Infancy, and be­fore they have actuall Faith, shall be damned.

And if Infants may be debarred from Baptism, by the judgement and Act of this Text, because they cannot actually beleeve; they may be deny­ed to eat by the Sentence and Act of a like Text, because they cannot labour actually: the Apostle giving a law, If any will not work, neither shall he eat. 2 Thes. 3. 10.

But it is most undeniably certain, that this place of St Mark aims all­together at grown Persons, as is ad­mirably evident by the steerige of the precedent Verse: And he said unto them, Goe ye into all the World, and V. 15. Preach the Gospell to every Creature. For: the Gospell is not Preached but unto the grown Person, as only capable of being edified by Prea­ching. And therefore, the place, that it may be righteously and modestly understood, must of necessity receive this Ingredient, derived from the pre­cedent Verse: He of them to whom the Gospell is Preached, that belee­veth [Page 281] and is Baptized, shall be saved: but he of them to whom the Gospell is Preached, that beleeveth not, shall be damned. And the grown Persons must likewise adequate the sense of every Creature, though every Crea­ture be not a grown Person.

Where the English puts into the mouth of the Psalmist: God setteth Psal. 68. 6. the solitary in families, or, in a House: Interp. vul­gat. The Vulgar offereth, Qui habitare facit unius moris in Domo, who makes Persons of one carriage and behavi­our to live in a House together. The Vulgar Interpreter drew his water from the Nile of the Septuagint: Sept. who have in the Current of their Version, [...], Men of the same Manners, and having the same scope. Aquila Scripture-makes, [...], Aquila. Men singled forth, and living a­lone.

Christ in St Mark, separates grown Persons from Children, and puts Persons of the same carriage together: affirming that in the con­version of grown Persons, Faith which comes by hearing and Baptism are necessary to Salvation: and also, subinferrs, that Children may be [Page 282] Baptized and saved, without hearing the Word Preached, and without actuall Faith, as not being capable of either.

CHAP. LXXX.

THey argue, secondly: [...], from an absurd Thing which would follow, if Children were Bap­tized.

For: as Hurtado diggeth out of Hurtado in Logica, ex Organ. Ari­stot. Aristotle: Ex vero nec [...] nec [...]; of Truth no absurd or incon­venient Thing follows, nor a Thing impossible.

Signum frustrà datur non intelli­gentibus quid significet: A Signe is in vain given to those who understand not the meaning of it: As: a beauti­full Picture, though the Master-peece of a Master-workman, is in vain pre­sented to the Void Circles in the face of a blind Man: He does vainly that Musicks a deafe Man, or sounds a silver Bell or Trumpet at the double­barred Doore of his Ear: He vainly works who physicks a dead Bo­dy.

I answer: The Proposition is mo­derated [Page 283] and regulated by some, after this manner. Signū frustrà datur non intelligentibus velintellecturis quid significet: A signe is in vain given to those who understand not, or shall not afterwards understand, what it means.

But let others take this rough, rugged & brier-bearing path: I will not. Because many Children dye quickly after Baptism, who neither knew, nor shall know, in the State wherein the Signes are in force, what the Signe signifies: And some Children, putting off their childhood with their coats, climb up to years; who know not wisely themselves, or any Thing pertaining to them, but are themselves wisely known to be Fools.

And therefore, in downright Truth: this argument is not upright, but is it selfe most absurd and blas­phemous: it spitting fire at God▪ and kicking, with an equall foot, against Circumcision, and God the Author of it: the Signe whereof, was not in vain, though given to such as under­stood not what it meant.

Wherefore the Proposition is false: it not being in vain to offer to any [Page 284] Person what may doe him good, though he be not sensible of the Thing offered, or of the good it doth or can doe. Physick is ministred to Children, Fools, Mad men. A Man sunk to the Ground in a Swoon, and unsensible of Help, is raised again, and forcibly brought back to sense by strong water forced upon him; or something of a strong sent, by force applied to his nose. One sick of a lethargy or epilepse, or grievously wounded, is used accordingly.

The man who travelled betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho, and was left Luk. 10. 30. halfe dead in the way, having been assaulted by Theeves; though he was neglected by the Priest and Levite; was rightly succoured by the Sa­maritane, who bound up his wounds, Verse 34. pouring in Wine and Oyle.

The Answer which wholly and through-cuts the throat of the Argu­ment, is: The Signe is not in vain which doth not signify to the Per­sons whom it principally concernes: But, the Sign is in vain which can­not at any time signify to them, by reason of defect and default in it selfe. As we say: Frustra est Poten­tia, [Page 285] non quae non reducitur ad Actum, sed quae reduci non potest: The Pow­er is in vain, not which is not reduced, but which is not reducible to Act. As also, according to the divine Dictates of my most eminent Master in Rome: Joannes de Lugo, Car­dinalis, in Materia de Christo. Non est frustrà in Deo Potentia assu­mendi plures Naturas humanas: The Power in God of assuming more hu­mane Natures, is not in vain. For: although he will not, yet he is able by his absolute Power: Which Ability diverts and forestals the Vanity of the Power.

CHAP. LXXXI.

THey argue, thirdly: à Congruo; from the Congruity betwixt Per­sons of a like Condition. No Man Baptizeth grown Persons that are blinde, deaf, and dumb: Therefore, neither ought we to baptize Infants, the same Reason interposing it selfe, and Infants being blinde, deafe and dumbe in respect of the Ordi­nance. Lessius, Emmanuel Sa, Medina, Mariana, & al [...], in Cast­bus Consci­entiae.

I answer to this Case-Argument, according to the most sound Do­ctrine of the most profound Casuists. [Page 286] If the grown Persons w ^ch are blinde, deaf, and dumb, could by any means expresse of themselves a pious W [...]ll, by which they willed or desired to be Baptized, or denoted their prepara­tion to Baptism; or, if they were not born so, and have manifested such a desire or will and preparation, immediately before they were van­quished by the Calamites of dumb­nesse, deafnesse, blindnesse: or: if one having declared his good will to Baptism, become presently sick, and by a sudden extraposition be exposed out of himselfe and his Senses; and there be no Indic a Sanitatis, signes of his Health and Recovery: Such Persons might, may and must be Baptized.

(Yea: the Baptism is valid, which is given to Persons either a sleep or mad, if Baptism were formerly desi­red by them.)

But if their will and preparation cannot be known: they are not Bap­tized. Because in those who have the flourishing use of Reason, their ex­presse consent is required to baptism, and also, their preparation by Faith and Repentance: otherwise grown [Page 287] Persons would not be reconciled to God according to their capacity, and the Condition of Humane Nature, agreeably to which Condition and Capacity God alwaies works.

And the Persons in the Argument, as they have no capacity of expres­sing their consent and preparation, because it cannot be riveted into them what Baptism is; wherein they agree with Infants▪ so have they no capacity of expressing that they doe not ponere obicem, put an hinde­rance or obstacle to Sacramentall Grace; and herein they differ from Infants, who cannot put any such obstacle or hinderance. And there­fore, except we have an outward Signe from them of their inward qualification, we (as being guided onely by outward Signes) doe not apply to them the outward signe of a Sacrament, as having morall signes of inward prevention, and abuse of the Sacrament.

Hence on the one side, though sons or daughters wanting the use of Reason, may not be Baptized invitis Parentibus, their Parents being un­willing: yet if such being rip'ned, shal [Page 288] expresse their consent, and manifest their preparation, we Baptize them, notwithstanding the unwillingnesse of their Parents: And on the other side, we Baptize a Mad man, that hath been mad from his Nativity, without or against his cōsent; because although he may outwardly oppose the outward Ceremony of the Sacrament, yet he hath no inward opposition to the inward Grace and Effect of it.

Thus their Congruum is incongru­um; and the blind and deaf Persons in the Argument, are not so deaf and blinde as the Forgers of it.

CHAP. LXXXII.

THey argue, fourthly: We cannot be assured of Childrens inward qualification for Baptism: therefore we may not Baptize them.

I answer: We are assured of a negative qualification in them; namely, that there is nothing in Children, by the which, according to their childish condition, they are unqualified. And as they cannot have a positive qualification, so they need it not.

And in this respect, we are much more assured of their qualification, than of the qualification of grown Persons: who, though they professe the true Faith of Christ, and seem, faithfully to promise amendment of Life; yet cannot make it plain, an­swerably to our assurance, or make certaine to us certitudine Scientiae aut Fidei, by the certainty of Science or Faith, that they cordially professe the one, or faithfully promise the o­ther; or, that the Motive of their Promise and Profession is the Love of God, and not a temporall Conside­ration: the Garb of Hypocrites, comprehending all the outward po­stures of Godlinesse.

And as in grown Persons, the Se­crets of the Heart are known to God, not to Men or Angels; so there is a secret worke of Sanctification in Baptized Infants, which God know­eth as omniscient, and as the Author of Sanctification; and Man know­eth not, (I will not seclude the An­gels being Spirits, from the sight of infused Grace, either in the actuall infusion or in the residence of the sanctifying Habit:) upon whose roy­all [Page 290] knowledge of Spirituall Things in themselves, we may not wish or think to intrude.

That the Pancrasie of this An­swer, may farther exert it selfe to view: Let the Anabaptists consider, first, the Nature of divine Faith: which is, A firm Adhesion of the Understanding to the revealed will of God; which Adhesion is com­manded by our Wils, acting by Love the will of God: Which Faith and Love are the Gift of God. For: an impera [...]t Act of the will, concurs with the Understanding to an Act of Faith: And as Biel scholastically: Biel▪ in. 3. Sent. d. 23. q. 2. a [...]l. 1. Cre [...]ere est Actus Intellectûs Vero assentientis, productus ex voluntatis Imperio: An Act of Beliefe, is an Act of the Understanding assenting to Truth, and produced by the command of the Will.

Let them ponder, secondly, that this actuall Faith is connexed with 1 Tim 1. 5. Text. Grae [...]. actuall Charity: which is [...], Charity [...]ut of a pure Heart, and of a good Consci­ence, and of Faith unfeigned or unhy­pocriticall.

Thirdly let them advisedly re­count, that the Catechumeni com­ming to make the Profession of their Faith before Bapiism, must come obediently to the Exhortation of the Apostle: Let us draw neer with a Heb. 10. 22. true Heart in full assurance of Faith; or, as the Originall speaks, [...], Text. Graec. in the fullnesse, or cer­taine perswasion of Faith.

Now if the Anabaptists require assurance in the Baptizers, the Bap­tizers must be assured, that the Per­sons whom they Baptize, are thus qualified; of the which they cannot be assured, but by divine Re­velation: And we are all already assured without a new Light of divine Revelation, that these extra­ordinary Matters are not the ordina­ry Matter of Divine Revelation.

CHAP. LXXXIII.

THey argue, fiftly: De Baptism [...] non repetend [...], in sacris Tabulis nihil occurrit: We are not prohibited in Scripture to it [...]ra [...]e Baptism: there­fore we may be rebaptized.

I answer: Neither is the iterating [Page 292] of Baptism in a Person Baptized with Christ's Baptism, commanded, commended, or tolerated in Scrip­ture: the Answer being as full and Scripture-strong as the Argu­ment.

The Rabbins anxiously dispute up­on Rabbini in Gen. 4. Gen. 4. 15. the Text, and the Lord set a Marke▪ upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him: What Signe or Mark this was, wherewith Cain was mark'd or sign'd.

Some think it to have been a woun­drous and unnaturall howling & yel­ling, by the which he did bewaile his lost & wandering condition. Others imagine, that it was a wildnesse or Fury: Others, a wandring Flight: Others, a perpetuall shaking and Trembling of his body, and especial­ly, of his Head; signifying his con­tinuall Instability, and horrible Fears: and that therefore he built a City for his Defence; he having in his Fears and wandrings dilucida Intervalla: the first and this opinion, being an­chour'd upon the Septuagint, where Sept. Gen. 4. 12. for a fugitive, and a vagabond, they allow, [...], mourning and trembling. Some give abroad, [Page 293] that he crept on all four, as Children sometimes doe: Some, that he was bra [...]ded & cauteriz'd with a particu­lar Mark: So Aben Ezra. Yea: R. So­lomon Aben Ezra in Gen. 4. R. Solo­mon, ibid. avoucheth, that God imprin­ted a Mark in his Forehead. And intruth, some Arabick Versions of the Septuagint translate it, And the Lord imprinted. The Hebrew Word Oth signifieth also a Letter: and we may, without injury to the Text, interpret it, And the Lord set a letter upon Cain. Which Letter some He­brew Doctors wisely surmize to be Thau, being the last Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, and the first of the Hebrew Word Teshuba, signifying Repentance: that all people seeing Cain, might be silently admonished to Repent of their sins; lest God should give them over to finall De­solation of Heart as he gave Cain.

Which Mark soever of these, we sieze upon as the mark of Caine; that, even that very Mark, is verily the Marke of an Heretick: but especi­ally the Vagabond-Mark. The Dif­ference is: God set a Mark upon Cain: The Anabaptists, in the repeti­tion of Baptism, mark themselves: [Page 294] After the marking of which Mark, See Ezech. 9. 4 in the Hebrew. (so the Hebrew phrases it;) it is re­markable, that they know not where to rest or end their Motion, but are turn'd besides their Marks, wayes and Arguments, and sent into the Wildernesse by every Novice.

And having once iterated Bap­tism, although they should be Bap­tized as often, as Alexander the Phy­sitian required the washing of Lapis Lazuli, before it should be used: they would never be clean, or washed from this irremoveable Mark of their continuall Wandring and Mo­tion.

CHAP. LXXXIV.

THey argue sixthly: The Merits and Satisfaction of Christ profit us not, but as pull'd home to us by our Application: Therefore the Sa­crament of Baptism cannot convey the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ to Children; these being un­able to apply to themselves the said Merits and Satisfaction.

I answer: Be it heartily granted, that there is a necessity of Applicati­on [Page 295] in Persons capable of it. Because the satisfaction of Christ is altioris Ordinis, of a higher Order, than any pious operation of ours, it being ge­nerall; as offered and prepared for the sins of all Mankinde; and our pi­ous Operations being particular, and reflecting only upon our own Faults. And as the Sun, being a Uni­versall Cause, does not anull or abo­lish the proper Efficiency of the parti­cular Causes, (for Example, of a man begetting a Man;) but rather, works with them, and requires their coope­ration, without which it works not in the production of such Effects: So the generall satisfaction of Christ, requires to it's Effects the Particu­lar operation of grown Persons, with­out which it doth not operate.

Hence, for the Sin of Adam, being the generall Fault, and adhering to humane Kind, God is wholly and solely satisfyed with and by the Sa­tisfaction of Christ; a generall Satis­faction being adequately commensu­rated with a generall Fault: and in regard of our particular sins, he re­quires our particular operation, and application of the generall Cure; the [Page 296] most soveraign Medicine or salve not curing, except applied to the wound or Soar to be cured: (the Weapon-salve and magneticall Cures have here no place or likenesse.)

But particular Application can­not have being in Infants: And God exacts not of any Persons in any condition, above what he offereth, or hath given to them: And there­fore, the Faith of the Church is ef­ficiently and sufficiently appliable to them, and supplies their Defects.

Sans doubt: When Children shall be unchilded, their particular and personall Application is necessa­ry. Which Application doth not en­force Rebaptization: Because the Sacrament of Regeneration, as rela­ting to Generation, cannot be itera­ted: And because we may not be twice Character'd with the same Character.

Wherefore it may be justly said of Rebaptization from the Pen of St Cyprian writing against the promis­cuous S. Cypr. contra pro­miscuos in [...]alne is Congressus. Meetings of Men and Women in Baths: So [...]didat lavatio ista, non abluit: This washing defiles, and wa­shes not.

CHAP. LXXXV.

THey argue, seventhly: from the Authority of a Councill: Upon Dr Taylor in his Liber­ty of Pro­phesying, Sect. 18. which, the Libertine-Prophet confi­dently reposes himselfe, as with Authority.

The Councill of Neocaesarea allows expressely to a woman with Childe, that she may be Baptized; the Bap­tism Concil. Neo­caes. Can. 6. of one in her Condition, not de­scending to the Child in her Wombe: because every one in that Confession, should shew his own Election.

I answer: first: This Councill was not a generall Councill, or confirmed by a generall Councill in every parti­cular Branch of it.

Secondly: Even a generall Coun­cill may erre in reddendâ Ratione, in giving a Reason, and in Things be­sides the Thing principally defined and intended: And therefore, a Coun­cill doth not oblige us ad necessariò credendum aut faciendum, but when it speaks definitivè, definitively; God securing to us, only the Matters to be beleeved and to be done, which conduct us to Salvation, and leaving [Page 298] us to discourse the Reasons: Because the Definitions pertain to all; the Reasons, to the Learned only, who are Judges of them.

Thirdly: this Councill undertakes not to define the Matter of Infant Baptism; but only, glances at it, obitèr & aliud agens, by the way.

Fourthly: As Infants may not be Vide D. Tho. p. 3: q. 68. art. 10. Baptized in the Womb, for excellent Reasons: so being out of the Womb and alive, they must be Baptized for as excellent Reasons.

Fiftly: The Canon compares an Infant in the Womb, not constitu­ting a Person by himselfe, with one out of the Womb, being a proper Per­son subsisting by himselfe; and to such a Person the Canon requires, that he shal shew [...], proper Election. And this is all that Theodorus Balsamon, Zonaras, Photi­us, or any Expounder of the Canons, can demand canonically of this Canon.

But the Canon doth not shew, that the Election of others having Domi­nion over the Child, and their publike shewing of it, and strengthening it by their Confession of the Faith for him; is not accepted as the proper Election [Page 299] of the Child, and as his personall shewing of it; and may not be so na­med; in the nonage of the Child.

And this answer perfectly divides betwixt the Child in the Womb, and the Child newly born.

For, the Sacraments are Visible Signes, and must therefore be con­ferred upon and terminated at Per­sons in a visible, approximate, & tan­gible condition. So that, had the Canon compared Infants with grown Per­sons, in this or the like Pronunciate; Infants, that they may be Baptized, must grow beyond their Infancy and Childhood, and must have and sh [...]w proper and personall Election, as other grown Persons do: it had pronounced against us.

But whereas it only requires in an Infant, a proper Election and the shewing of it, with comparison to the Infant in the Womb, for the which, none can Elect or shew Election, be­cause no one can see for what he should shew Election on God's be­halfe; which inhibits the admini­stration of the Sacrament, being a Visible Signe, and requiring a Visible and apparent Subject: The Child [Page 300] born, being now a Person by him­selfe, though he hath no such actuall Election in himselfe, yet may Elect and shew his Election by others, of which only Election he is then capa­ble; as he Elects by others, in the matter of temporall and outward Provision; and as Nature Elected for him in the Womb: and this may freely passe for his proper Election, and answer to him as being now a proper and single Person, and in the hands of others having received spi­rituall Power over him from God, and in whom it lies to dispose of him to God's greatest Glory, who is most glorified by his Worship­pers.

I confirm this Answer, by unloc­king another pretious Cabinet of Divinity. St Hierom expounding the Words of Christ after he had set a Child in the midst of his Disples: Take heed that ye despise not one of Mat. 18. 10. these little ones: for I say unto you, that in Heaven their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is S Hieron. in M [...]t. 18. exponens il lud, V. 10. Angeli [...]rii in caelis▪ &c. in Heaven: crieth out: Magna est Digni [...]as Animarum, ut unaquaeque habeat ab ortu Nativitatis, in Custo­diam [Page 301] sui, Angelum delegatum: Great is the Dignity of Souls, that every Man hath from his first rising and appearing under the stars in his Nati­vity, an Angel delegated to him for his Custody.

If a Child hath an Angell delega­ted to him for his Custody, from the first minute of his Birth: Which An­gell is not delegated to him in his Mothers Womb; because there he is adhuc Aliquid Matris, as the School-Divines Scholastici: School us after Aquinas, yet something of the Mother; as fruit hanging upoon a Tree, is yet some­thing of the Tree: Shall we grown Persons think that an Infant, being now a Person by himselfe, and there­fore specially attended from Hea­ven, may not partake of Gods hea­venly Ordinance, if he shall by Hea­venly Providence fall into the Right of those that can Heaven-Chuse and rightly confesse for him; and that this Heaven-choice and confession may not be called his personall and proper Confession and Heaven-choice: espe­cially, the gracious Acts which God accepts from us, though, as such, ef­fected Supernaturally by a power in­finitely [Page 302] above us; being imputed to us, as our proper and personall Acts? Avertat Deus: God forbid.

CHAP. LXXXVI.

THey argue, eightly: from the bowels of ancient History. Cer­tain Persons, born of Christian and zealous Parents, were anciently de­tained from Baptism, untill they came to years: As: Constantine the Euseb. in vita Con­stan [...]ion. Russiaus, Nicepho [...]u [...]: & alii. S. Aug. con­fess. lib. 1. cap. 11. Vide vitas Sanctorum. Son of Helena a Christian: St Austin the Son of Monica a Christian: who together with St Hierom & St Am­brose borne of Christians, were not Baptized untill they had compleated the Age of 30 Years. And St Gregory Nazianzen, the Son of a Bishop in the Greek Church; was Baptized being a Youth.

I answer: This in the winding it up, concludes only, that the Practise of Baptizing Infants, was not strict­ly, absolutely and altogether Univer­sall.

And first: These Parents would not have willingly, and without a torture of Heart, so neglected these their Children, that they should have [Page 303] dyed without Baptism. St Austin Possidoni­us in vita Augustini. was greatly and fearfully sick, at which time his Mother Monica was also greatly sick with feare, lest he should have dyed without participa­tion of the sacred Ordinance. And what these Divine Worthies divinely thought and taught concerning their own, or others dying without Bap­tism; is worthily manifest in their most worthy writings. Let St Gre­gory Nazianzen stand here for a S. Greg. Naz. in Serm. de Baptismate. Mark, because he seems most remar­keably opposite to us. He commands expressely, that the Child be Baptized in periculo Mortis, in the case of Mortall Danger; and he proves it with an argument desumed from Circumcision: and he farther wils, that Baptism be not differred beyond the Age of three years: in which Age, we that are of Age know, Chil­dren are unknowing, and cannot have actuall Faith and Repentance, and consequently, neither publish them by Profession.

Secondly: Their Parents and they proposed to themselves a religious End in differring their Baptism: Yea: the Devotions of these few and ex­traordinary [Page 304] Saints, staid them long amongst the Catechumeni, partly that they might heap together, and treasure up great store and variety of Learning & Experience in their ca­pacious Hearts, before they should be forced up [...]n publike Offices, Ecclesi­asticall or Civill: unto which they were not ordinarily driven or called, being yet Catechument; though it ex­traordinarily happened to St Am­brose and Constantine.

Thirdly: St Austin, St Hierom, and St Ambrose were partly eleva­ted above all ordinary Rules, by ex­traordinary Inspirations, to an ardent desire of conforming themselves to the extraordinary Example of Christ their Master.

Lastly: Actiones Paucorum (quemadmodum & Privilegia) non sunt trabendae in Exemplum: The Actions of some few, militant against the common Praxis of the Church, (as also the Priviledges of some,) a [...]e not to be drawn into Example: It is an exemplary Rule in the Canon-Law. To which I lawfully marry, and in a C [...]nonicall Hour; another like Rule: Logibus, non Exemplis, vivitur: we [Page 305] should live according to Laws and not according to Examples of Men carri­ed against, besides, or above Law.

Ludovicus Vives his mistake was Vide Lud. Viv. in S. Aug. de Ci­vit. Dei, l. 1. cap. 27. grosse, and he grossely ignorant of History, all people must confesse that will not be, as he was, grossely mi­staken.

And concerning Constantine: the Vide etiam Metaphr. in Constantino. Surium Tom. 6. Martyrol. Ʋsuard. & Pontifical. Roman. c. 34 most creditable opinion is, that he was Baptized by Sylvester Bishop of Rome, immediately after his Conver­sion; (and not by Eusebius the Ar­rian Bishop of Nicomedia, Death in­vading him with sicknesse:) and that his Mother Helena then expected the Messias, and was of the Jewish irreligious Religion.

CHAP. LXXXVII.

LAstly: they argue: from the loines of Modern History. The Chil­dren of the Georgians in Armenia, are not Baptized untill they be aged eight years.

I answer: The Abassine Christi­ans are Circumcised. The Customes of decayed and corrupt Churches, are not presidentiall unto us.

They argue still; and magisterial­ly enough: but either by pressing places of Scripture, which they press to death; or by oppressing us with a multitude of Arguments, bearing no date of Authority or superscription of Reason. And herein they tri­pudiate like the Fairies or Satyrs upon the Mountaines; as if all the good ground they dance upon, were their own. And whilest they amuse us, with a plausible and yellow paint of carriage and of stretch'd pronunci­ation, they suppose themselves to set off their dull-coloured Arguments, with the gaudy lustre of their pain­ted behaviour: But, al this while, can­not sink to the bottom of the Devils Policy. Non enim persequitur & im­pugnat Cypr. Car­thaginensis l. 3. Episto­larum, ep. 1. ad Lucium. Christi Adversarius, saies the Glory of Carthage, nisi Castra & Mi­lites Christi: Haereticos prostratos semel & suos factos contemnit & prae­terit: Eos quaerit dejicere, quos videt stare: The Adversary of Christ doth not violently persecute and impugn, but the Camp and Souldiers of Christ: He contemns and passes negligently by Hereticks, as being now in the dirt, and already made his own: He seeks to [Page 307] throw them down, whom he sees to stand.

It appears a godly Truth: That the Devill never appears to them, whom he knows to question his Being: because in that respect, he hath already sure hold of them. And Theodot. Job 1. 6. Vide Theo­phylact. in Mat. 12. he, who, according to Theodotion, is [...], the Adversary that lyeth in ambush against us; is willing that the Anabaptists should greatly please themselves with a little smat­tering of Morality, and a few beg­gerly rudiments of pious Profession; whil'st they are Soule-poison'd themselves, and whil'st they poison the Souls of the People with their impure Arguments; which, like the inchanted Castles of their Hearts, are strong and impregnable, only until the Charm be dissolved.

O the Saviour of Israell: Nature in the Naturall Body, doth alwaies en­deavour to rectify it self: And Grace in the Soule, rectifies Nature: But who shall rectify these out-law'd and strong-will'd people, that strong­ly keep the Fort of their Hearts a­gainst Grace? Even thou alone who art [...], the mighty God.

CHAP. LXXXVIII.

THE Results here prefer them­selves. Whereof the first is: This Text thus warded, guarded, and se­cur'd with Fortifications of all sorts; professing for Baptism: the Baptism of Infants is commanded in Scrip­ture.

The Resultancy is thus brought neer to the Eye. Every Proposition is either a Principle, principally and properly belonging to some Science, (I speak of Science in a large Sense;) from which the Sc [...]ence partly flow­eth and followeth; every Science being Virtually contained in it's Principles: or is a Conclusion dedu­ced from a Principle: Whence eve­ry Conclusion is reducible to the Principle, from which it was dedu­ced.

And Sciences are of two Kindes: there being some, which proceed from Principles known by the natu­rall Light of our understanding, as Arithmetick, Geometry, and others; and some that proceed from Princi­ples known by the Light which a [Page 309] Superiour Science gives to us; and these we name Subordinate Scien­ces; As, our Science called [...] or Perspectiva, proceeds from Princi­ples Vide Alste­d [...]i Cursum Philosophi­cum ultimae Edi [...]ion is, in Perspectiva & Musica. made known by Geometry; and Musick, from Principles known by Arithmetick.

Now if the Proposition be a Prin­ciple of a Superiour Science, it suppo­seth no other Principle of it's Kinde, going before it; yet, is it big with Inference: and the Propositions infer­red, are Conclusions regulated by it: this being one applicatory Sense of the Rule: Primum in unequoque Ge­nere, est Mensura reliquorum, The first in every kinde, is a Measure of the rest.

And every Conclusion supposeth and inferreth; unlesse the last Conclu­sion that is deducible, may be [...]ound; this inferring not, but abundantly sup­posing.

And of what rank and Order soever the Proposition is which sup­poseth and inferreth, of the very same Order and ranke are the Propositions inferred and supposed: If that be a naturall Truth, these also be naturall Truths: If that be a divine Truth [Page 310] and God's Word, these be God's Word and divine Truths: Because as that in it selfe, expresseth God's Speech; so likewise by it selfe, it sup­poseth and inferreth God speaking by these.

Take now the Text or Proposition here, Except one be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God. This Proposition supposeth and inferreth. What doth it suppose? Every Proposition necessa­rily and immediately supposeth the Proposition, whereof it is the imme­diate Reason; the Thing & the imme­diate Reason of the Thing, being im­mediately connexed; and such a Rea­son orderly, necessarily, and most neer­ly following the Thing. The Thing therefore, which this Proposition must of necessity suppose, is: Go and Baptize all Persons qualified for Bap­tism, yea even Infants offered by the Church; it necessarily following as the immediate Reason, For except one be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God: Or; Except ye Baptize all such, and they be born of Water and of the Spirit, they cannot enter into the Kingdome of God.

And the immediate Reason hath so severe and sincere a connexion with the Thing; that the Thing, which even now went before it and was supposed, it can now againe infer and bring after it, making the Thing omnimodously strong, by supporting it on both sides, and with both Arms upholding it: As thus: Ex­cept one be born of Water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the King­dome of God: Therefore goe and Baptize all Persons qualified for Bap­tism, yea even Infants offered by the Church.

Finally: This Proposition or Con­clusion, except one be born, &c. being the Word of God, a divine Truth, and a Proposition of the Superiour Science, which is Scientia Dei & Bea [...]orum the Science of God and the Blessed; the other Proposition, Go and Baptize all Persons qualified for Baptism, yea even Infants, &c. must also be a Proposition of the Superiour Science, a divine Truth, and the Word of God; even upon a double Account, and as in the Supposition so in the Inference; and must be recei­ved by all rationall Persons, as of [Page 312] equall waight and worth with the written and expresse Proposition, Ex­cept one be born, &c. by the which, it is necessarily supposed, and from the which, it is inferred of necessity.

And therefore let our Anabaptists never ask more, where we finde the Command of Baptizing Infants in the Word of God; it being there, once and againe, within a short space of place.

And the Truths of Scripture can­not be more cleared by interpretati­on, if we could mingle with our In­terpretations the very Beams of the Sun.

Indeed: A Conclusion may pro­ceed ex falsa Hypothesi, from a false Supposition. But our Conclusion is the Word of God: and in a false supposi­tion, the Thing supposed is not imme­diately, necessarily, & naturally suppo­sed, but accidentally, ad placitum, & as being far fetch't; neither is the Pro­position supposing, or, before and to w ^ch we suppose; the immediate Reason of it: And the false Supposition may be soone discovered to have crep't and wedg'd it selfe unnaturally into the Order drawn from the Principle, [Page 313] and not to belong orderly and natu­rally to it.

CHAP. LXXXIX.

THE second Result is. The Bap­tizing of Infants is necessary tàm necessitate Pracepti quàm neces­sitate Medii, by the necessity of Pre­cept, and by the necessity of Meanes.

That is necessary by the necessity of Precept, which is necessary because it is divinely commanded. And that is a Command; at the least an impli­cit-one; to the breach of which, there is annexed an extreme Penaltie; as here there is.

That is necessary by the necessity of Meanes, which is appointed by di­vine appointment, as a Meanes of our entring into the Kingdome of God: And here Baptism is required as a necessary Condition, Qualificati­on or Meanes; Except one be born, &c. the unbaptized being excepted, by a contrary exception, as uncondi­tioned, unqualified, and without the Meanes.

The Reader may perhaps voice it here: This is Popery. If he doth: I [Page 314] reply, first: I have repeated what I have read in Dr Featly: who hath Dr Featly in his D [...]p­per dip't. written as I have, that Baptism is doubly necessary by these Necessi­ties.

Secondly, I reply: Dialogismum Cordis mei sequor, I follow the dis­course of my Heart in the deep tracts of School-Divinity; the strength and marrow of which, I finde, after long use, to be superlatively strong and usefull, and above the marrow and strength of Lions: although the Cras­sipelles or thick-skinn'd Preachers dabling and wading in the shallow, shallowly think otherwise.

Thirdly: An Act of dissembling, in turpissimis habeo, I place amongst the basest of Things.

There is a famous Alphabet of Hebrew Words; which being com­pared Habetur in Maso [...]a si­nali, cujus Collecto [...] [...] ­rat R. Jacob Ben Chaijm, quae (que) [...] est Co [...] Venetian [...] & Bux [...] si­anis [...]. two by two, agree in their Letters, both radicall and servile, and in their Manner of being written; and very much differ in their Sense.

But if I differ from the multitude in Judgement, I shall humbly and submissively propose in writing, the difference of my Judgement; and no way differ from my selfe.

The most heavy hand of God is upon us; and how dare we to dis­semble in God's waighty Businesse? Psal. 29. 9. Targ. ibi. The voice of the Lord maketh the Hindes to calve. The Targ runs with the Hindes: parere cogit, compels to bring forth; the Hindes bringing forth with great difficulty, but when affrighted with Gods Voice, being Thunder.

Now, as one Christian may be­leeve another: If I could yield con­sent to the whole Masse or Medly of the Doctrines of Papists; I would be as free as the Aire, and as bold as a Lion, and the Reader should quick­ly know it.

And: If Men will be star-lighted by Sense and Reason, they must con­ceive, That, had I been acceptable to Papists, the Popish-linag'd Heir would not have stab'd me the other Day with an Irish Dagger, in the sight of the Sun, and in an open place so neer to the Grand Seat of Ju­stice.

God Almighty defend our Supe­riour Powers from such Mischiefes; which commonly bring subitaneam & improvisam Moriem, suddaine and unexpected death.

In the sacred Assistance of the highest Power; I shall never be like to the Jesuited Papist, in the stabbing of any Man, or in the non-perfor­mance of obedience to the Powers under whom I am dejected, al­though the said Powers should clou­dily shine upon me.

CHAP. LXXXX.

THE third Result is. The Sacra­ments have their Effects and Virtue from Christ; who alone, makes our way clear for our en­trance into the Kingdome of God: and therefore, a wicked Man wrap't, envelop't, and involv'd in sin: doth Validè Validly, though not Licitè, Lawfully, administer a Sacrament.

For: As it matters not in respect of Curing Diseases, whether or no the Body of a Physitian (which is the Instrument of a Soul having Art,) be sound, or infirm: And as it neither helps nor hinders the conveyance of water, that the Pipe of Conveyance or Conduit-pipe be composed of Gold, or Silver, or Lead, or Wood: So it imports not in regard of Sacra­mentall [Page 317] Effects, whether or no Mi­nister Sacramenti, the Minister of the Sacrament, be good or Evill; (though in obedience to the will of God, and in respect of his own personall Good and actuall Preparation complying with the sacred Ordinance, and of the good of others by the Good of his good Example, he should be ex­cellently good.)

Because Instrumentum non agit secundùm propriam formam aut vir­tutem, sed secundùm virtutem ejus à quo movetur: An Instrument, as an Instrument, doth not Act according to it's own form and virtue, but accor­ding to the virtue of the Power by which it is moved: All actions co­ming from agreeable Forms and Powers.

Wherefore Christ operates in the Sacraments, by the good, as by the living Members of his Church; and by the evill, as by inanimate Instru­ments.

St Austin gives his full, and mani­fold S. Aug. in Evang Jo­an Tract. 11. Approbation: Baptismus qui datus à Juda, Baptismus Christi crat: qui autem à Joanne datus, Baptismus Joannis erat. Non Judam Joanni, sed [Page 318] Baptismum Christi etiam per Judae manus datum, Baptismo Joannis eti­am per manus Joannis dato rectè prae­ponimus: The Baptism that was admi­nistred by Judas, was the Baptism of Christ: And the Baptism administred by John, was John's Baptism. We doe not set Judas before John; but we rightly preferr the Baptism of Christ even administred by the hands of Ju­das, before the baptism of John though it passed through John's hands.

He returns the same reason in ano­ther place, wherein he speaks, not as before of different Baptisms, but of the same: Per Ministros dispares, Idem. lib. 3. contra Cres­conium Grammati­tum, cap. 6. Dei munus aequale est; quia non illo­rum, sed ejus est: The Gift of God is equall, though administred by Persons of unequall Conversation: because it is the Gift of God, not of them who administer the Gift.

The same quick-sighted Author weaving into his Discourse, that al­though some vain Persons of the weaker Kinde, prompted and solici­ted by sinister Intentions, brought Children to be Baptized, to the end, the Children might receive or con­serve bodily Health; yet the Children [Page 319] were truly and rightly Baptized by the Ministers of the Sacrament: after-strows this Reason: Celebran­tur Idem epist. [...] 23. ad Boni­facium. enim per cos necessaria Minisle­ria: For: Services of necessary Con­sequence and Result, are celebrated by them.

And I wonder not a little, that reasonable Mr Tombs could fancy Mr Tombs in his Exa­men. any Thing to be soundly deduced for him, from the vanity and irresolution of a few seduced and unsound Peo­ple.

And if he will tear to himselfe, that the want of a good Intention in the Parents, may pervert or incōmo­date the actuall Baptism of the chil­dren: it will much more follow of it selfe, that the want of Intention, or of a good-one in the Minister of the Sacrament, must quel and overthrow his Act of Baptizing; the Minister of the Sacrament, acting Sacramen­tally.

It is cast up in the end, as gold­oar with an Indian Spade: that a Sa­crament, quoad Essentialia & Sub­stantialia Sacramenti, according to the Essentials and Substantials of a Sacrament; proves alike to the Re­ceiver, [Page 320] whosoever the Giver or Minister be, if the Giver be rightly call'd and Ministerially gives a Sa­crament.

CHAP. LXXXXI.

THE fourth Result is. Although we are obliged to the Baptizing of Infants, for the prevention of the Danger in the Text, and as fellow-Members with a People professing Christ; Yet grown Persons anciently converted to the Faith, were order­ly and rightly catechised and instru­cted, before they were Baptized: Such Meanes proportionably agree­ing with such a Condition.

And therefore: in their first Ap­plication to the Church, they were aestimativè, in the estimation of Bel [...]e­vers, Unbeleevers and called [...], as possessed of an evill Spirit and moved inwardly by it: and were sear­ched (how strangely soever the Word may sound in strange Ears) with Exorcisms, by some deputed for that work and called Exorcistae, Exorcists; who rebuked the devill in the Name of Jesus.

After these Exorcisms; they were brought unto the Baptistery, and there they put on the Name of Competen­tes, because they did there competiti­on for Baptism: And there were they put into the hands and tuition of the Catechists.

And now, while they were taught and catechized, they were named [...]. These did frequently fast, watch, pray, and hear Sermons: being separated from others in the Church, by a proper place called Ca­techumenium. They departed from Vide Hospi­nianum in Tract. de Templis. the Church ante majorem Canonem, before the Priest entred upon the greater Canon and Celebration of the Mysteries: Yea, they were not present in the Baptizing of o­thers.

After their Baptism, their Name was [...], being a Twin-word from [...], a new plant.

But except necessity pressed, by occasion of sicknesse or other like evill, inducing the Danger of Death; they were Baptized, only at the two great Feasts, in the which, S. H [...]eron. in vita Paul [...], primi E [...]mitae. Anthony wore the Palm-Habit of Paul the first Hermite; that is, at the [Page 322] solemn Feasts of Easter and Pente­cost; Tertul. l. de Baptismo. ad Ca'ccm. Leo Mag­nus ep. 4. quae [...]si ad Episcopos Sicihae. according to Tertullian and Leo the first.

And again: before they were ad­mitted into the number of Belee­vers, by Baptism; (let the Reader patiently, if not reverently, hear the repetition of some speciall Ceremo­nies of the Church, raised from the reverend Monuments of pious Anti­quity; in the seattering of which, I am only the Interpreter to the Fa­thers;) first, they turned their faces to­ward the West, and renounced the Devill and his works, and the works of all them from whom the Sun of Righteousnesse was departed, (in the Apostolicall form); as Dionysius Are­opagita S. Dionys. Arcop. de Eccl. Hier. cap. de Bap­tisme. recounts.

Secondly: they tacked about and faced the East; in which position of Body, they professed the Christian Faith, and their Defence thereof; (using the words of the Apostolicall Creed;) agreeably to the same Dio­nysius: Idem ibid. and afterwards of the Nicen Symboll.

Thirdly: the same writer attesteth, Idem ibid. (I can witnesse nothing in it, but him to be a witnesse of it;) that the Signe [Page 323] of the Crosse was made on their Foreheads, and on their Breasts: by the which, they were signed for God and for Christ crucified; the ig­nominious and inglorious Passion of whom, should be their Triumph and Glory: as it was St Pauls. Gal 6. 14.

And yet, againe: After their admit­tance by Baptism: first: they were kissed osculo Pacis, with a kisse of Peace, by the Christians who were present, in token that, as Baptized Persons, they were now their Bre­theren: this is enrolled by St Cypri­an. S. Cypr. l. 3. cp. 8. ad Fidum.

Secondly: a burning Taper was given into the hands of the Baptized Persons, in signe of the Faith and Grace received; and to signifie that now they were translated from the Power of Darkenesse, to the admira­ble Light and lot of the Sa [...]nts: this S. Greg. Naz. orat. in sanctum Lava [...]rum. Lactant. in Carmine. Paschali. is Chronicled by St Gregory Nazi­anzen.

Thirdly: they were invested in a White Dresse, as Lactantius hath left dressed in metricall black and white; which they wore from the Sabbath or Saturday▪ being the Eave of Easter, and called Sabbathum [Page 324] Sanctum, the Holy Sabbath; to the Sunday after Easter-Day, which was therefore named Dominica in Albis, The Lord's Day wherein the Bapti­zed, appeared all in their White Gar­ments: of this, Dionysius is the Re­corder. S. Dionys. ubi supra & alii ex eo.

Aud then at their putting off these white Garments, Divine Sermons were preached to them, in the which they were exhorted to retain inward whitenesse and purity, of which the outward purity and whitenesse was but a white Marke. Hence we have most Heavenly Ser­mons In Biblio­theca Pa­trum. amongst the Primitive Records, entit'led De retinenda Puritate, Of retaining Purity.

Fourthly: Milk and Honey was given into their Mouths, to be Tertul. l. 1. contra Mar­cionem, cap. 14. S. Hieron. in D [...]alogo contra Luci­ferianos: vi­de eundem, Comment in Is. 55. 1. ubi vini & La­ctis mentio­n [...]m facit. tasted by them: of which Tertulli­aen; and afterwards, St Hierom, who interprets it to have been done in sign of our new Infancy in Christ. Wherefore on the Dominica in Al­bis, in the Roman Church, with re­ference to the Neophyts; part of the Epistle of St Peter is read which containeth, Quasi modò geniti In­fantes lac concupiscite, &c. As new­born [Page 325] Babes desire the sincere Milk of Missale R [...] ­manum Do­minica in Albis, in E­pistola. 1 Pet. 2. 2, 3. Dr Taylor Sect. 18. the word, that ye may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

But I see not, how Dr Tailor thumming this Baptismall Ceremony in his tailoring, and cutting it out against the Baptism of Infants; can hence peece it up, that because Men who were Baptized, were to be as Babes, therefore Babes must not be Baptized untill they be Men. Yea rather, Babes should be Baptized, because their Innocency is the Scripture Measure and Rule, by which, Men are made Baptizable; and to which, they are now pleasant­ly and sweetly directed by the Cere­monious tasting of Milk and Hony.

This expression, as new born Babes, or, as little Children, hath an express Mat. 18. 3▪ Confirmation from Heaven, in the Name, Perfection, and Adumbrati­on of the Cherubims: In their Name: the Word Rub in the Hebrew Lan­guage, (as also Rabe in the Chaldee,) signifying a Child; and Che signifying as: In their Perfection, their fullnesse of knowledge, according to their other derivation, being Character'd and [Page 326] compendiously delineated in the Faith of initiated and Baptized chil­dren; because Faith here answereth to Vision or Face-Knowledge hereaf­ter: In their Adumbration, the Che­rubims having chiefly been effigiated as and in the shape of Children or Babes in respect of their Faces.

CHAP. LXXXXII.

THE fifth Result is. The Senses of Scripture, accepted by the Primitive Church, and all venerable Antiquity, being so violently and ob­stinately rejected in this our obsti­nate and violent Age: we should give our Assent to the Senses of Scripture, not rashly, but secundùm Regulas Prudentiae, according to the Rules of Prudence.

There is a Thing, almost in every Text of Scripture beckening to Pra­ctise, like that which the Painters call the Aire in every Face, For: if all the parts of the Face, be taken in their proper feature, and right Pro­portions, and this Aire be not thus taken, (which Aire is a speciall kind of Center, wherein all the consents of [Page 327] Similitude have a generall Mee­ting;) the want of this Aire, is in the reason, that the Judgements of Men give a different Air and sound; and that while one strongly affirms, the face to be like, another denies it as strongly.

And if the words of any Text be taken or understood, according to the partiall and particular Acception of those Words, in common use, or in other places of Scripture: And the generall Aire, (which is the Scope of the whole Text, and coincidence of it cum Antecedentibus & Consequen­tibus, with the Things going before and the Things following: Yea: which is the Relation it beareth to Persons and their Conditions, and the interest it hath in Places; and, as it were, a sudden cast of the Look upon Times and Customs; and so forth:) be not understood and taken according to the severall aims and ey-turnings of the Text: the Judgements of Inter­preters, will be various: although they shall pretend to Interpret by divine Inspiration.

S. Hilary turns us upon another Turn of the Eye in a Text: Intelli­gentia [Page 328] Dictorum ex Causis est assu­menda S. Hilar. l. 4 de Trinitate dicendi; quia non Sermoni, Res, sed Rei Sermo est Subjectus: The Understanding of Things said or Say­ings, is to be taken from the Causes of their being said; because the Thing is not subjected to the Speech or Saying, but the Saying or Speech to the Thing.

Is it probable now, that ordinary People can take this Aire in a diffi­cult and controverted place of Scrip­ture? It is not probable. My Reason is: Because there are ordinarily re­quired to an Understander of Scrip­ture, first, Godlinesse, Peace of minde, (which excludes overbearing Affe­ction,) and a good Wit; in the wise, peaceable, and godly Judgement of St Austin: Si tamen bono Ingenio S. Aug. de utilit. Cre­dendi, c. 18. Pietas, & Pax quaedam Mentis acce­dat, sine qua de sanctis Rebus nihil prorsus intelligipotest: To a good Wit there must be added Godlinesse, and a certaine Peace of the Minde, with­out which, nothing at all of Heavenly Things can be understood: Secondly: great Wisdome and Learning; by the which, the Reader may judge of the circumferentiall References which [Page 329] the Text hath, caused by Languages and Uses of Speech, Times, Places, Customs, Persons, precedent Precepts, Causes, Natures of Things and their Effects, &c.

Thirdly: when we have done what Man can doe: If the Interpreters of Scripture, be not spirited with the same Spirit, with which, the writers of it were spirited; they shall never give Spirituall and secure Judge­ment, proportionably to the Prophe­ticall and Apostolicall Spirit.

Infallibly▪ If it be not moreover, infallibly known to us that they are di­vinely spirited; they cannot imbreathe into us Cognitionem quietativam, Knowledge that shall qiuet and allay our exasperated and troubled Hearts.

And the Doctor Subtilis bindes it up with an infallible Reason: Nemo Scotus 2. D. 23. q. vnica: perfectè credit, & omninò firmitèr, ei quem scit posse fallere & falli: No Man perfectly, and altogether firmly beleeves him, (let him be Interpreter of the Words or Sense,) of whom he knows that he can deceive & be decei­ved, in such Things and Occasions; as having no security of Direction, from the gracious and manifest Promise of God.