More Proofs of Infants Church Membership and Right to Baptism, Letters 1 · Section 28
SECT. XXVIII.
R. B. I Come next to the ſixth Queſtion, Whether indeed there be any tranſeunt fact, which without the cauſation of any promiſe or precept, did make the Iſraelites Infants Church-members▪ This you affirm (if you would be underſtood;) whether this your ground of Infants Church-memberſhip or mine be righter, I hope will be no hard matter for another man (of common capacity) to diſcern. By a [tranſeunt fact] thus ſet as contradiſtinct to a law, precept or promiſe, either you mean the act of legiſlation and promiſe making, or ſome other meerly phyſical act. If the former, it is too ridiculous to be uſed in a ſerious buſineſs: For you ſhould not put things in competition excluding the one, where they both muſt neceſſarily concur, the one ſtanding in a ſubordination to the other. Was there ever a Law or Covenant made in the world any other way than by a tranſeunt fact? Sure all legiſlation is by ſome ſignification of the Soveraigns will. And the making of that ſign is a tranſeunt fact. If it be by voice, is not that tranſeunt? If by writing, is not the act tranſeunt? If by creation it ſelf, the act is tranſeunt though the effect be permanent. And certainly if legiſlation or promiſing be your tranſeunt fact, you do very abſurdly put it in oppoſition to a law (or promiſe) it being the making of ſuch a law. And the legiſlation doth no way oblige the ſubject, but by the law ſo made: nor doth the making of a promiſe, grant or covenant, confer right to the benefit which is the ſubject of it, any otherwiſe than as it is the making of that grant which ſhall ſo confer it. As the making of a knife doth not cut, but the knife made: and ſo of other inſtruments. So that if the law oblige not, or the grant confer not, certainly the legiſlation or promiſe-making cannot do it. I cannot therefore imagine that this is your ſenſe, without charging you with too great abſurdity. As if you ſhould ſay, It is not the will of the teſtator, i. e. his teſtament, that entitleth the legatary to the legacy, but it is the tranſeunt fact of the teſtator in making that will: or it is not the Soveraigns commiſſion that authorizeth a Judge, ſouldier, &c. but it is the tranſeunt fact of writing or making that commiſſion. It is not the ſign that ſignifieth, but the tranſeunt fact of making that ſign. Were not this a contemptible arguing? To charge you with this, were to make you tantum non unreaſonable. And yet I know not what to ſay to you, that is, how to underſtand you. For if you mean a meer phyſical tranſeunt fact, which is no ſuch legiſlation or promiſe-making, then it is far more abſurd than the former. For if it be not a ſign of Gods will obliging to duty, or conferring benefit, then can it not ſo oblige to duty, nor confer benefits. It is no other tranſeunt fact but legiſlation that can oblige a ſubject to duty, nor any other tranſeunt fact but promiſe, or other donation, that can convey right to a benefit, or oblige the promiſer. A moral or civil effect muſt be produced by a moral or civil action, and not by a meer phyſical action; which is unfit to produce ſuch an alien effect, and can go no higher than its own kind. What ſenſe therefore I ſhould put on your words, without making them appear unreaſonable, even much below the rates of ordinary rational peoples diſcourſe, I cannot tell. For to ſay, it is not a law but legiſlation, is all one as to ſay, it is not the fundamentum, but the laying of that foundation that cauſeth the relation, or from which it doth reſult. And to ſay it is an alien phyſical act, which hath no ſuch thing as right for its ſubject or terminus, is to confound phyſicks and morals, and to ſpeak the groſſeſt abſurdities; as to ſay that the tranſeunt fact of eating, drinking, going, building, &c. do adopt ſuch an one to be your heir. I muſt needs think therefore, till you have better cleared your ſelf, that you have here quit your ſelf as ill, and forſaken and delivered up your Cauſe, as palpably as ever I knew man do, without an expreſs confeſſion that it is naught. When men muſt be taught by this obtuſe ſubtilty to prove that Infants Church-memberſhip needed no revocation, forſooth [becauſe their Church-memberſhip was not cauſed by a law, precept, promiſe or covenant, but by a tranſeunt fact] than which as you leave it, the world hath ſcarce heard a more incoherent dream. But I pray you remember in your reply that you being the affirmer of this, muſt prove it. Which I ſhall expect, when you can prove that you can generate a man by ſpiting or blowing your noſe, or by plowing and ſowing can produce Kings and Emperors.
Mr. T. Here Mr. T. is at the old tranſeunt fact again: Let the Reader make his beſt of it: I account it not worth the reciting; nor his title of Canine Scoptical Rhetorick regardable.