INFANTS BAPTISING Proved lawful by the SCRIPTURES: Objections against it resolved and removed. MAT. 18. 6. Whosoever shall offend a little child which believes in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Aug. 24. 1644. Imprimatur, JOHN WHITE. LONDON, Printed by George Miller dwelling in Blackfriars, 1644. The Printer to the Reader. Reader, PErceiving some Pamphlets to be sent abroad, against Baptising of Infants to corrupt the people, I thought it my duty to the Church of God, to publish this short discourse (which came to my hands) to give some check to the spreading of anabaptistical fancies, until some Learned pen shall more fully and largely evince the truth in this controversy; consider thou seriously what is said in it, and be established in the present Truth, and not carried off from thy steadfastness with every wind of Doctrine: show thyself to be solid wheat, and not slight chaff in the garner of God. Farewell. INFANTS BAPTISING Proved lawful by the SCRIPTURES. COnsidering the present strange and dangerous spreading of the old Error of the Anabaptists; That children are not to be baptised, which in all ages of the Church under the Gospel hath been condemned, whensoever it hath been stirred, and is now again revived and pressed by the workings of Satan, who hath prevailed to the infection of many therewith even among those that pretend unto holiness, and have obtained a good degree in the Church of God; I could not be satisfied in myself till I had searched into, first, the title and claim of Infants unto this ordinance of Baptism, and then into the bars and pretences brought against it; and finding the claim of Infants to be by the Scriptures strong and clear, and the batteries raised against it weak and slight, my spirit was at rest and settled in the truth and justice of the constant and general practices of all the Churches in it, and did not so much as think of making any of my thoughts and meditations concerning these things legible, till by occasion of some debate I had with some Ministers I reverenced, and of a Letter sent unto me by one of them, I addressed myself to set down in writing, solutions and answers to those things which I perceived to stick with them, whereby it comes to pass, that in this following discourse, there is no methodical handling of the controversy (as it well deserves) but the stating of the question and proof of Infant's baptism, falls in by parcels as the objections against it gave occasion. And whereas one basis upon which the Infants right is founded, is suggested by the Anabaptists to be a promise proper to Abraham, and not to extend to all professors of the Gospel, nor to any of them: I begin with that, namely, GEN. 17. 7. I will be the God of thee, and of thy seed. THis is a double Promise: First, I will be the God of thee; Secondly, I will be the God of thy seed. The first promise is no peculiar of Abraham's, but is common to every believer under the Law and Gospel, a branch of the new Covenant, Jer. 31.33. The second being the same Promise, signifying and carrying in it the same things, and in terms the same, only varying the subject, extended to seed, his seed, as related to him, must be of as large extent as the first, and common to every believer with Abraham: and this is plain and manifest by the Grammatical construction of this Promise. Secondly, It is farther evidenced, by comparing this with other Scriptures, Deut. 28.4. The righteous shall be blessed in the fruit of their bodies: where blessedness is promised to their seed as theirs, in reference to them. Deut. 30.2, 6. God promises to the true penitent, to circumcise their heart, and the heart of their seed, to love him, Isa. 44 3 I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring. Isa. 59.21. My Spirit and my words shall not departed out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor of thy seeds seed for even Mat. 19.14. and Luk. 18.16. Jesus Christ declares his mind concerning the children of the members of the Church, he would have them brought to him, he blesses them and saith, that of them is the Kingdom of God. Acts 2.39. The Apostles speaking to converted Jews and Gentiles, penitent believers, affirmeth, that the Promises belong to them and to their children. Thirdly, That the said Promises were no peculiars of Abraham, appears by that of the Apostle, Gal. 3.16. that the Promises made to Abraham, were made to Christ, and so to Abraham as interessed in him, in whom Abraham and all the nations of the earth are blessed. All promises of grace are made to Christ, and to Abraham, and to believers under the Gospel in him, in respect of our interest in him. In him are the promises yea and Amen unto us. Abraham was an antecessor in the faith, whose steps the faithful follow, Rom. 4 12. but neither father of our persons nor of our faith. God honoured him to be the first to whom this promise was expressly made (after the same made in the beginning to Jesus Christ the seed of the woman) and so he was a father, and not otherwise, more than any other believer. There was also another speciality in this Promise to him, that of his natural seed should proceed a people that should have the honour, till Christ came, to be the only visible Church on earth; but the Scriptures make this rather a peculiar of Isaac, then of Abraham, and made to him in Isaac, and not generally, Gen. 17.19. Rom. 9.7. The Promise to Abraham comprehended Ishmael also, whereupon the seal of it was given to him by God's appointment; clearly declaring the extent of that Promise to all in the visible Church, and so it belonged to Ishmael, till for his mocking of Isaac (by which he forfeited it) he was justly excommunicate. Fourthly, Another thing manifests this truth, namely that God gave Abraham the seal of the Promise, not as Abraham, nor as a Jew, but for and in respect of the righteousness of faith he had before circumcision instituted, in his uncircumcision: by that it appeared he was in Christ, capable of the Promise, and entitled unto it: and this is common to Christians of the uncircumcision as well as to Abraham that received circumcision, Rom. 4.11. Fifthly, This further appears by the thing contained in this Promise, namely, the appropriation of God to believers by a free Covenant of peculiar grace above and before others, and this grace, (as believing) is either outward, for and concerning visible Church privileges to be members of the visible Church, partakers of Baptism * The visible Church is called Christ, 1 Cor 1●. 12. And the Kingdom of Christ, Mat. 13. , etc. or inward and merely spiritual, which none but true Saints in whom the new creature is form have Covenant-right unto: Clearly all the natural seed of Abraham while they continued members of the visible Church and were not excommunicate, had Covenant-right to Church-priviledges for them and their children, and though some of them had not true faith and so attained not an interest in the invisible grace of the Covenant, yet that unbelief made not the Covenant and faith of God without effect, Rom. 3.1, 2, 3. So it is under the Gospel; Vbi eadem ratio, idem ju● & de similibus idem est judicium. And lastly, This is further evinced by the whole tenor of the Scriptures in the a Contr●●iorum eadem est ratio. contrary, which is the portion of the wicked and of their children that are not in the Covenant of grace, or being once within the outward and visible grace thereof, deprive themselves thereof by becoming degenerate and profane, and are justly therefore excommunicate. The curse is always extended to their seed as well as to them, Deut. 28. 18. Exod. 20.5. and though this be not executed upon all their seed, but that free election manifested by their regeneration restores them to be vessels of mercy, yet that makes not the curse of God of no effect, neither doth the general revealed will, hinder the operation of the secret free grace of God's election, or of reprobation. Abraham's seed, Rom. 4.16. is distinguished into the seed which is of the Law, and the seed which is of faith; and neither excluded, but both included within the Promise. And Rom. 9.6. the distinction is between the natural and the spiritual seed, among the natural as well as others, and none of them are excluded from interest in the Covenant, but first all are included in the outward grace of the Covenant, vers. 4. all Israelites, to whom pertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenant and the Promises: Secondly, Some are excluded the invisible grace of the Covenant by the secret counsel of divine preterition, as others were included by election, vers. 6, 11. all which further confirms and clears what I have said; and both parts of the Covenant are free grace, even the outward, Psal. 147.19, 20. God shows his word, statutes and judgements to Israel, he hath not dealt so with others. Ob. It is objected by one, That this Promise is made to Abraham, not as any believer, but as a person chosen by God freely. Sol. To which I answer, That which is spoken to Abraham as a believer, is common to all believers, because they all are subjects capable of it, they all are persons chosen by God freely, and have the same hand of faith to receive it; and there is no colour to assert, that God is not the God of every believer as well as of Abraham, or that the children of every believer are not beloved for their father's sake as well as Abraham: And it is a Promise made, not to believers as a species, but to individuals, believers as acted with faith. The Promises of God are not notions, nor predicable of universals, but actual, but whatsoever general Promise is made to any man as a believer, is made, intended and applicable to all, to every, to any believer. That they are beloved for the father's sake, is true of every believers children as well as of Abraham's, for if the root be holy so are the branches, Rom. 11.16, 28. though some of them be broken off by personal unbelief, as it was with Abraham's seed, vers. 17. And that God doth sometimes make particular promises of particular grace (which is not applicable to all believers) to some persons that believe, is nothing material or pertinent to this question, as the Promise to Phineas concerning the Priesthood, Num. 25.13. and the Promise of the Keys to Peter, Mat. 16.17, 18, 19 For first, the Promise to Phineas was not made to him as a zealous man, for than it would have been common to all zealots (though God took occasion from his zeal, and in reward thereof to make that Promise unto him) but God made it unto him as a Priest, in which respect only he was capable of it, and by the matter itself appears it was peculiar and not common; but to be the God of his people, is common and communicable to all believers as our Promise now in question; so far are these cases from similitude, as they have no resemblance. And so the Promise to Peter is not of a thing common to all believers, as the Promise in question, but of a matter entrusted unto the Ministers of the Gospel, and made to Peter as such, not as a believer; and though made to Peter, is applicable to all Ministers of the Gospel, and common to the rest of the Apostles. And whether the inferring of such instances to prove the promise in question to be a peculiar of Abraham's, be not cavilling rather then candid arguing or seeking the truth, let the Reader judge. And it is apparently a like mere cavil, to say that Isa. 59 20, 21. is not applicable to all believers, and all times, because the Apostle, Rom. 11. 26. applies it to the Jews; for by the context of the original place, it is a general promise, made expressy and extended to all to whom the Redeemer shall come, and the applying thereof to the Jews, a branch only of them to whom he came, is so far from limiting it, as applying animal rationale to John to prove him a man, limits it to him alone excluding all other men, when that instance confirms it to all of like case and condition, and declares it appliable to them also, and upon the same reason. And Exod. 20 6. That God will show mercy to thousands of them that love him, is clearly a Promise to the believer and his children, who though not expressly, yet by the antithesis of the context comparing it with the former verse, upon which it depends and is inferred, are necessarily included: and it is a Promise to every believer (as general as the curse in the former verse, which extends to all that hate God) extending to all that love him, and not matter contingent but certain to them. And so Psal. 112.2. The Promise that the seed and generation of them that fear the Lord and delight in his Commandments shall be blessed, is not made to John or Thomas only, but in common to all that fear and delight in God, and both these Promises are as large as blessedness, including Heaven as well as earth. Ob. But it is further said, That the children's obedience is always expressed or implied, Psal. 103.17, 18. Sol. To which I answer, That God promising blessedness to my children a Isa. 54. 13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. , undertakes their faith and obedience b Isa 49.25. I will save thy children. , without which they cannot be spiritually blessed; These two are some of the good things included in the Promise and Covenant, and performances thereof, and are implied as effects, not as motives or causes of the promise which is most freely made by the Lord. The revealed will of God in this Covenant concerning the good of my children, is the rule to the Church and me, what to believe, hope and expect concerning them, and what to do to and for them to prepare and enter them (as much as in us lies) into and for the whole good of this Promise. The secret counsel of God how my children shall prove in the end, belongs not to us, is no rule for us to walk by towards them till it be revealed. And this Promise holds out unto us; First, A ground comfortably to believe and hope that God will fulfil the whole of the Covenant unto them, whence we have as clear a ground to expect their spiritual as their temporal good, and upon this promise we may ground a prayer of faith for both for the children. Secondly, This Promise binds us to use in faith all means that the children are capable of for the interessing of them in the good of this Covenant, and among other to baptise them. Infants are capable of grace, to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven, and for aught we know, the Spirit hath sanctified the believers children, and from this promise we have ground to hope that it is so, they being within it expressly; and this Covenant gives them a right to the seal of it; and this revealed will is the rule by which the Church and we are to judge, leaving secret things to God; and therefore without incurring the guilt of infidelity, and breach of the command included in this promise of using means, and without manifest injury to the children, and contempt and slighting of this great mercy and kindness expressed and assured in this Covenant to believers, neither the Church nor they can withhold Baptism from their children. Hence it appears, that this Objection is cast in impertinently, to trouble the clear waters of this sweet Promise, and weaken our faith in it. What God hath undertaken (it being his work and not ours) we are to rest upon his truth and faithfulness in accomplishing it, and not trouble our hearts or heads about it, but doing our duties believe in his truth revealed, and submit to his sovereignty (the exercise whereof is unknown unto us) when he shall reveal it. It is true that the election only obtains the invisible grace of this promise (as the Apostle saith of Abraham's seed) but what is that to us before God manifests who are in his election and who not; It ought not (being secret) to impeach our faith in this Promise, nor withhold us from using all means to our children for the obtaining of that grace. Ob. It is further objected, That Baptism requires a spiritual use, and children cannot make such spiritual use of it, and by experience it is clear, that many baptised in Infancy, after deny it. Sol. To which I answer, That the spiritual use of Baptism is either by the Spirit of God, and that that is done in the children of believers, we have from this Covenant good ground to believe; or by the Church and parents in bringing the children unto this ordinance in faith, which is done in the right administration of it, or lastly by the children themselves, who being passive in this ordinance, it is not necessary that at present they express the fruits of it in any activity of theirs, no more then in circumcision; but this is to be believed and expected, that God who hath promised will produce it in time. And though it fall out that some deny their Baptism afterwards as some did their circumcision, that is not material in this question, being secret and therefore not considerable in the dispensation of the outward visible grace and privileges of this Covenant which such children have Covenant-right unto; Which also is by this further manifested, that though many of them that receive Baptism, at full age after deny it, and declare by their apostasy that they are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity as Simon Magus, yet that hinders not the Church to administer Baptism to others of full age, upon their profession of faith and repentance. For we are to walk by the revealed will of God, and not be hindered by future events, which being secret, are to be left and referred to God. And we are encouraged so to do in the case in question, not only from the Covenant of God, but also from the experience of his gracious performance thereof, who hath made good this promise to the children of believers and professors in the uttermost extent of it, specially where there hath been no fault in the believers, either in not believing this gracious promise, or not using the means sanctified for the obtaining of the performance of it. Ob. It is further objected, That religious parents have no other privilege concerning their children then from the means of knowledge for them which unbelievers have not. Sol. To which I answer, It is plain by what I have said, that the Scriptures speak great and excellent things of the seed and generation of the godly, which it not only excludes the seed of the wicked from, but speaks sad and dreadful things of them: of the seed and children of believers, the holy Scriptures testify that God is their God, will circumcise their hearts to love him, pour out his Spirit and blessing upon them, will show mercies to thousands of them; they shall be blessed, the promises belong unto them, and the Kingdom of Heaven; they are holy, beloved for the Father's sake, etc. but of the children of unbelievers, they speak no good, but contrarily that they are cursed; God will visit the iniquities of their fathers * Num. 14.18. Deut. ●. 9. jer. 32.18. job ●● 19 upon them unto the third and fourth generation, that they are a ● Cor. 7. ●4. unclean, the seed of the serpent: fare from safety, Job 5.4. God will make their plagues wonderful, Deut. 28.59, etc. And by this appears that there is a broader difference between the children of believers and of unbelievers, than that believers have the means of knowledge for their children: Besides, many unbelievers, as Papists and open profane persons among us, have the means of knowledge for their children, and so between them and the children of believers is no difference, nor the condition of the children of believers better than of unbelievers: Into what a bottomless pit of absurd opinions doth the spirit of error hurry men that turn from the truth and forsake it? Ob. It is further objected, That this ordinance is not appointed for children. Sol. To which I answer, First, That God includes the children of believers in the Covenant. Secondly, To whom the Covenant belongs the seal belongs b They ●hat have the th●●g signifi●●, may not be denied the sign ●f capable of it, 〈◊〉. 47. & A●t. ●. 7 They hav●ng the like 〈◊〉 and promise as we to deny th●m baptism is to withstand God. , all God's Covenants are sealed Covenants. Thirdly, The children of believers are capable of this seal of the Covenant, being merely passive in the administration of it, both in respect of the outward element and inward grace of it, and it is a strong engagement of them to devote themselves unto God when they attain discretion that from the beginning they are consecrated unto God, and have such excellent promises c 2 Cor. 7.1. sealed unto them, and what then hinders them to be baptised? It is yet further objected, That baptising of children hath no foundation in Scripture. To which I answer, There is a twofold testimony of Scripture express in terms, and that is not to be had for some principal truths: Secondly, by necessary clear deduction from clear Scriptures; and such grounds Scripture abound withal for Pedobaptisme, and some of them I have above opened and cleared. Ob. It is further said (and but said) That Baptism cannot be administered Infant baptism. to infants, as John the Baptist and the Apostles did administer it. Sol. To which I answer, That it may be, and that sufficeth in an answer expecting the proof of the objection: But because I desire to drive the adversary of this truth out of all his coverts and seeming strengths. I answer further, That in the administration of Baptism, according to the institution of it, and the use of it by John and the Apostles, and others recorded in Scriptures, there are some things essential and necessary in all cases; and some things accidental that are not necessary nor useful in all, but only in some cases. The essentials are three only, first a Minister of the Gospel to administer it, Mat. 28.19. they only have commission and authority for it. Secondly, A person that hath right unto it, either by his own personal profession of faith and repentance d Mat. 3.6. Acts 8.37. , or otherwise, upon whom it is to be conferred: Thirdly, To baptise in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And that such personal confession is not necessary, where it is otherwise apparent the person to receive it hath right unto it, is plain by John's baptising of Jesus Christ who had Covenant-right unto it, and could not confess sin, Mark. 1.9. and by Ananias baptising Paul without confession of sin or profession of faith, Acts 9.15, 18. God telling him he had a right unto it being his chosen vessel, and Peter's baptising the Centurion's friends upon whom he saw the Holy Ghost in extraordinary gifts to fall without their personal confessions, Acts 10.47. and yet those extraordinary gifts were not certain evidences of election to eternal life. And by Paul's baptising of all Lydias household * Act 16 1●. merely upon their submitting willingly unto it, without distinct personal confessions, for aught appears, and so the Jailor's a Act. 16.31, 33. household, and Stephanas b 1 Cor. 1. ●6. his household; and it cannot be reasonably imagined that there were no children among them; And 1 Cor. 10.2. All the children of the Israelites (being within the Covenant) were baptised in the cloud and in the sea as well as those that were of full age. Ob. But it is further objected, That by what I have said, children are to partake in the Lord's Supper also, being another seal of the Covenant, and by it Infant-Communion may be as strongly inferred as Infant-Baptisme. Sol. To which I answer, the case is wholly unlike and follows not; for there is in the institution of the Lords Supper required necessarily and as essential unto it, such things as Infants are not capable of and are not required in Baptism: In Baptism (the Sacrament of regeneration) the receiver is passive both in the outward and inward administrations thereof: But in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper (the Sacrament of corroboration and increase) the partaker of it must be active: An infant cannot examine and judge himself, discern the Lords body, do it in remembrance of Christ (all expressly required in the receiver of the Lords Supper, 1 Cor. 11.25, 26, 28, 29, 31.) But an Infant can receive the sprinkling of water, and is capable of the Spirit of life and grace, and if he be a child of a believer and member of the visible Church, nothing in the institution of Baptism excludes him, and the Covenant includes him expressly which is to be sealed by it. Some other arguments are brought against Pedobaptisme, but because they are from humane testimony negatively, (a way of arguing exploded by all Logicians) I will not misspend precious time in dealing with them, but leave them as of no weight or value. But I shall subjoin some few considerations of some further absurdities and mistakes of the opinion of those that deny Baptism to the children of believers, by which the truth in this question will more clearly appear. Besides that, by their opinion the children of believers under the Gospel are in as bad a case as the children of infidels, strangers from the Promises and Covenant of grace, strangers from the womb, which is the condition of the wicked, Psal. 58.3. so (as one observes) Gods holy lambs should live like strays, not marked with his brand, ordained to distinguish his from those he will not own; which is expressly against the Scriptures, as I have above clearly evinced: But they be also in a worse case than the children of the Jews under the law were, they were within the Covenant of grace, and had the seal of Circumcision, a Sacrament, the same in substance with Baptism, of the same spiritual use and end in the place and stead whereof Baptism succeeds: which is also clearly against the Scriptures, which inform us that better things are reserved for us under the Gospel, a better condition than they had under the Law, Heb. 11 40. Yea the children of the Christian Jew, are by their opinion put in a worse condition than the children of the Jew before Christ were in, and yet they grant them to be within the said Promise made to Abraham first ; The children of the circumcised Jew might have the seal, but the children of the Christian Jew may not; whereby the coming of Christ is made to turn to the disparagement of the children of the Christian Jews, to depose them from the hereditary dignity they had under the Law, contrary to the Scriptures, Heb. 7.19, 22. & ●. 6. which testify, that Christ Jesus hath brought us a better hope, a better testament, and his Ministry to be more excellent, and established upon better promises. Secondly, These men would have the Church and the Ministers of Christ refuse, and refuse to bless those whom Jesus Christ himself in person received, embraced and blessed, as those to whom the Kingdom of Heaven belonged, contrary to the Scriptures, Ephes. 5.1. Be ye followers of God as dear children; and the Scriptures call upon the children of the Church, even those that suck the breasts to partake in the extraordinary duties of the Church, namely fasts, Joel. 2.16. Ezra 10.1. for which they are more unfit then for Baptism. Thirdly, These men break the constant rule of right interpretation and construction to support their fancy; The Scriptures are one entire body of truth, Joh 17.17. Thy word is truth, and therefore construction must not be made by fraction upon any part of it, touching any question raised out of it alone, but upon all matters concerning it compared together, and therefore we are to search the Scriptures, and compare spiritual things with spiritual things. Take all the holy Scriptures together concerning Sacraments, and it clearly appears that when God instituted them in his Church, he declared his mind, that the children of the Church should be partakers of them, as Gen. 17.7, 10. of Circumcision, the Sacrament then of initiation and regeneration; and of the Passeover, Exod. 12.16, 47. the then Sacrament of edification, every soul in the house, all the Congregation were to eat it. After by the Gospel in the institution of Baptism, there is no change made, save only in the outward element, water washing, for the foreskins circumcising, no word of altering the persons to partake in it, as appears expressly, Joh. 1.33. God sent John to baptise with water; Here the element and outward matter of the Sacrament of regeneration is altered, but no more by the institution, no word of altering the persons, so as they remain as before, to be determined by the general rule at first common to all Sacraments: But in the institution of the Lords Supper, there is made not only a change of the outward matter, but also an alteration and limitation of the persons, and children excluded, and all that examine not and judge themselves, and discern not the Lord's body; Certainly if the Lord had intended any alteration or restraint of persons in the institution of Baptism, he would have spoken it out, as he doth in the institution of the Lords Supper; and his silence therein may satisfy any sober spirit that it never came into his mind. But these men look only upon the actual dispensation of this Sacrament of Baptism by the Baptist, and by the Apostles upon persons of full age expressly recorded, and not upon the rules of the Scriptures compared as aforesaid, nor do they consider the reason and rule of those practices. It appears expressly that those recorded practices were upon proselytes, new converts added to the Church, and newly brought to the faith of the Gospel, and with them they proceeded by the rule concerning proselytes, set down Ezek. 47.22. they gave them a portion in the inheritance of the Church, and made them partakers of the privileges thereof; can any conclude hence, that they intended hereby to disseise the children of the Church, and to disinherit them and divest them of the Covenant or seal to which they were borne? Certainly not: There is enough in the Covenant of grace and privileges of the Church for both, the natives and the stranger, that by his profession and conversion is added to the Church: To preach to infidels before they be baptised is necessary, because else a seal is put to a blank, but to baptise the infants of believers, is to put the seal to the Covenant, as much as it is to baptise professors of full age, such infants having the same right as professors. These men clearly err by not observing the difference between natives of the Church, and those that are foreigners and strangers to be received into the Church: and by not conferring the whole body of the Scriptures concerning Sacraments, to find out the mind of God in this business; what is the ground whereupon the Church under the Gospel receives women to partake in the Supper of the Lord, for which they have neither precept nor example in the new Testament, no more than we have for Infant-baptisme? Certainly none but that God commanded their partaking in the Passeover * Exod. 12. ●●. ●●. , and thereby declared them to be persons to whom he would have Sacraments administered if they were capable thereof, and of this they are capable, and nothing in the new institution and alteration induced by the Gospel excludes them. Ob. But some object further, That there is an express declaration of Gods will concerning persons in the institution of baptism, Mat. 28.19. G●● teach all nations, baptising them, etc. from which they infer, that none are to be baptised but those that are taught, and therefore only persons of discretion. Sol. To which I answer, That clearly here is no institution of Baptism which was instituted long before, Joh. 1. 33. God sent John the Baptist to baptise with water, and Jesus Christ that gave this command, was himself before this baptised, Mat. 3. 16. and the Apostles to whom he spoke this had baptised before, Joh. 4. 2. Secondly, It cannot be intended that these two duties of the Ministerial office, preach and baptise should be inseparable, in regard of the persons in whom they determine; that the same persons that partake not in the one, should not be partakers of the other, or that those that partake in the one, should necessarily partake in the other. John baptised Jesus Christ though he did not preach unto him; and it is apparently absurd, that Ministers must baptise all they preach unto whether they receive their preaching or not; and it is as manifestly absurd, that Ministers must deny baptism to them that by the word have right unto it, because they have not preached unto them, for it is the right unto it, not preaching to them, that determines to whom it is to be given, and such exposition is to be made of Scripture, and of all writings as absurdity may be avoided. Thirdly, The true sense and scope of this place of Scripture is plainly no more, but first to enlarge the Apostles commission which was given them before, Mat. 10.5. to all nations; at first limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and secondly to enjoin them to attend principally and with great care and heed the two principal duties of their office, preaching the word, and administering the Sacraments, and whosoever extends it further, apparently wrongs and abuses it. Ob. It is further objected, That the words, Mat. 28.19. where the Apostles are commanded to teach and baptise all nations, in the original tongue import, that they were to baptise none but whom they made disciples; and then Infants are excluded. Sol. To which I answer, The words upon which this cavil and criticism is grounded are two, the one translated ( * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. teach) which they would have to mean (make disciples) and pretend that it ought to be so translated, and the other is (them) which is of the Masculine gender, and cannot in Grammatical construction agree with the word Nations going before, being of the Neuter gender, and therefore must refer to the word disciples, implied in the Verb usually translated (teach:) In both which it seems to me very evident, that they are greatly (if not wilfully) mistaken. For though the word may signify to teach and to make disciples also, yet by the subject matter which it is here taken and used to express, it must be here taken for the first, and not for the other: because to make disciples was not in the power of the Apostles (upon whom this command lay) it being the peculiar of God a Psal. ●9. ●. to frame the heart to submit unto, entertain and embrace the Apostles teaching, and to cast them into the form and obedience of it, and so to make them disciples, but to teach, and thereby endeavour as much as in them lay to make disciples, was in their power and duty, and is all the whole of the meaning of the word here, therefore properly and rightly rendered teach, and not to make disciples. Semper f●nda interpretatio secundum subi●ctam ma●●riam. It is evermore the safe way to make exposition of the words of the Scripture, not according to our fancy, to wrest them to the opinion we take up, but according to the matter and meaning of the Scriptures themselves, appearing in the context thereof. And for the word [Them.] though Nations in Grammatical construction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. cannot be the Substantive unto it, (the Evangelist in changing the gender following, not the letter but the sense of the word nations) yet a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. men (that were to be baptised) a word comprehensive of all ages and sexes, and understood in the text, must be the Substantive unto it, rather than b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. disciples, which is only of the Masculine gender in the original tongue, and excludes women from Baptism contrary to the Scriptures, (which expressly mention the baptising of Lydia.) By which appears, that this text according to the matter and true proper meaning of it, is thus in substance: Go teach all nations, endeayour to make them disciples, and baptise every man of what age or sex soever that have right to that Sacrament. The scope of the text, is to enlarge the Apostles commission, and therefore the words of it are to be expounded in the most large, liberal and comprehensive sense that the holy Scriptures concerning Sacraments taken together will bear, and are not to be restrained to the objectors erroneous conceit, which c Psal▪ 78.41. limits the glorious grace of the holy one of Israel, and restrains it to the great dishonour thereof, and prejudice of his people. Ob. It is further objected, That Lot in Abraham's time was a believer, and yet was not within the said Covenant to Abraham nor circumcised. Sol. To which I answer, God made three several Covenants to Abraham, Gen. 17. The first, that he should be Father of many Nations, vers. 4▪ The seconnd, to be his God, etc. vers. 7. The third, to give him and his seed the land of Canaan, vers, 8. The first Covenant is peculiar to Christ, and Abraham as his Father, Gal. 3.8, 14, 16, 17. The second Promise is common to all believers with Abraham (as I have proved) even to Lot. And the third Promise was a peculiar of Abraham's natural seed, as appears in itself. And for Circumcision, there was a special reason why Lot had it not, expressly set forth in the text, namely for that it was restrained by God to Abraham and his natural seed, and such as were among them, Gen. 17. 10. so as none were to partake thereof but the Jews and such as did live among them and adjoin unto them, though they were believers: They being appointed to be the Church to whom the oracles of God were committed, Rom. 3.2. till the Messiah came, upon whose breaking down of the partition wall, the said first Promise was accomplished, and Abraham made heir of the world, Rom. 4.13. FINIS.