More Proofs of Infants Church Membership and Right to Baptism, Letters 1 · Section 26
SECT. XXVI.
R. B. HAving thus opened the terms [Law and Precept,] I prove the Propoſition thus. 1. If it was the duty of the Iſraelites to accept Gods offered mercy for their Children, to engage and devote them to him in Covenant, then there was a Law or Precept which made this their duty, and obliged them to it. But it was a duty: Ergo, there was ſuch a Law or Precept. For the antecedent, 1. If it were not a duty, then it was either a ſin, or a neutral indifferent action: But it was not a ſin, (for, 1. It was againſt no Law, 2. It is not reprehended;) nor was it indifferent, for it was of a moral nature, and ergo, either good or evil, yea ſin or duty: For properly permittere is no act of Law, (though many ſay it is,) but a ſuſpenſion of an act: and ſo licitum is not moraliter bonum, but only non malum; and ergo is not properly within the verge of morality. 2. If there be a penalty (and a moſt terrible penalty) annexed for the non-performance, then it was a duty: But ſuch a penalty was annexed (as ſhall anon be particularly ſhewed) even to be cut off from his people, to be put to death, &c. If it oblige ad poenam, it did firſt oblige ad obedientiam: For no Law obligeth ad poenam, but for diſobedience, which preſuppoſeth an obligation to obedience. 3. If it were not the Iſraelites duty to enter their Children into Gods Covenant and Church, then it would have been none of their ſin to have omitted or refuſed ſo to do: But it would have been their great and hainous ſin to have omitted or refuſed it; Ergo. Now to the conſequence of the major. There is no duty but what is made by ſome Law or Precept as its proper efficient cauſe or foundation: Ergo, if it be a duty, there was certainly ſome Law or Precept that made it ſuch. Among men we ſay, that a benefit obligeth to gratitude, though there were no Law: But the meaning is, if there were no humane law, and that is becauſe the Law of God in nature requireth man to be juſt and thankful. If there were no law of God natural or poſitive that did conſtitute it or oblige us to it, there could be no duty. 1. There is no duty but what is made ſuch by Gods ſignified will, ergo, no duty but what is made ſuch by a Law or Precept. For a Precept is the ſign of Gods will obliging to duty. 2. Where there is no Law there is no tranſgreſſion, Rom. 4.15. ergo, where there is no law there is no duty; for theſe are contraries: it is a duty not to tranſgreſs the Law, and a tranſgreſſion not to perform the duty which it requireth of us. There is no apparent ground of exception, but in caſe of Covenants. Whether a man may not oblige himſelf to a duty meerly by his conſent? I anſwer, 1. He may oblige himſelf to an act, which he muſt perform, or elſe prove unfaithful and diſhoneſt: but his own obligation makes it not ſtrictly a duty: ergo, when God makes a Covenant with man, he is as it were obliged in point of fidelity, but not of duty. 2. He that obligeth himſelf to an act by promiſe, doth occaſion an obligation to duty from God, becauſe God hath obliged men to keep their promiſes. 3. So far as a man may be ſaid to be his own Ruler, ſo far may he be ſaid to oblige himſelf to duty, (that is duty to himſelf, though the act be for the benefit of another;) but then he may as fitly be ſaid to make a Law to himſelf, or command himſelf: ſo that ſtill the duty (ſuch as it is) hath an anſwerable command. So that I may well conclude, that there is a law, becauſe there is a duty. For nothing but a Law could cauſe that duty, nor make that omiſſion of it a ſin. Where there is no law, ſin is not imputed, Rom. 5.13. But the omiſſion of entring Infants into Covenant with God before Chriſts incarnation would have been a ſin imputed; ergo, there was a law commanding it. 2. If it was a duty to dedicate Infants to God, or enter them into Covenant with him, then either by Gods will, or without it: certainly not without it. If by Gods will, then either by his will revealed, or unrevealed. His unrevealed will cannot oblige; for there wants promulgation, which is neceſſary to obligation: And no man can be bound to know Gods unrevealed will, unleſs remotely, as it may be long of himſelf that it is not to him revealed. If it be Gods revealed will that muſt thus oblige, then there was ſome ſign by which it was revealed. And if there were a ſign revealing Gods will obliging us to duty, then there was a law, for this is the very nature of the preceptive part of a law, (which is the principal part,) ſo that you may as well ſay, that you are a reaſonable creature, but not a man, as ſay that men were obliged to duty by Gods revealed will, but yet not by a Law or Precept. 3. We ſhall anon produce the Law or Precept, and put it out of doubt that there was ſuch a thing. In the mean time I muſt confeſs, I do not remember that ever I was put to diſpute a point that carrieth more of its own evidence to ſhame the gain-ſayer. And if you can gather Diſciples even among the godly, by perſwading them that there were duties without Precepts or Laws, and benefits without donations, covenants or promiſe confirming them, then deſpair of nothing for the time to come: You may perſwade them that there is a Son without a Father, or any relation without its foundation, or effect without its cauſe, and never doubt but the ſame men will believe you, while you have the ſame intereſt in them, and uſe the ſame artifice in putting off your conceits.
Mr. T. would firſt perſwade the Reader that I mean nothing but Circumciſion, —
Reply. Long ago I told you that, 1. The Females were not circumciſed, 2. Nor the Males for forty years in the wilderneſs: And yet were all Church-members by being Gods Covenanted people. And ſo was Iſrael before Circumciſion.
His terms of [the hiſſing of a Gooſe, and the ſnarling of a Cur] and other ſuch, I account lighter than the leaſt of his injuries to the truth.