More Proofs of Infants Church Membership and Right to Baptism, Letters 1 · Section 79,86
SECT. LXXIX, to LXXXVI.
R. B. THe promiſe to the whole people of Iſrael, Infants and all, that they ſhould be [a peculiar people, a Kingdom of Prieſts, and a holy Nation,] Exod 19.5, 6. you cannot deny. This is a promiſe, and not a tranſeunt fact which made no promiſe. And the people are called to keep Gods Covenant, that they might have this promiſe fulfilled to them. Yea, if you had ſaid, that it was a meer tranſeunt Covenant or promiſe, reaching but to the perſons then exiſtent, and dying with them, though you had ſpoken more ſenſe, yet no more truth than when you denied the law and promiſe, and ſubſtituted a tranſeunt fact. For, 1. It is expreſly a promiſe de futuro to a Nation. 2. Yea, and the Apoſtle Peter giveth the ſame titles to believers under the Goſpel, intimating the fulfilling of the promiſe even to them, as the promiſe to Abraham was to the faithful who were his uncircumciſed ſeed. However, here is a Covenant granting by way of confirmaon the bleſſing of Church-memberſhip to Infants with the reſt of Iſrael: For certainly, this peculiarity, and holineſs, and prieſthood here mentioned, containeth their Church-memberſhip: It is undeniable therefore, that ſuch Church-memberſhip is here granted by Promiſe or Covenant, not as a thing then beginning, but by way of confirmation of the like former grants. And it is to be noted, that though this promiſe is made to all Iſrael, yet not to be fulfilled to any of them, but on condition that they [obey Gods voice, and keep his Covenant,] verſ. 5. on which conditions alſo any other might have then enjoyed the ſame bleſſing, and therefore ſo may do now.
In Deut. 17.1, 2. The Infants with the reſt are called the children of God, and a holy and peculiar people to the Lord their God.
And Deut. 26.14, 18. the Covenant is expreſſed [Thou haſt avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and keep his ſtatutes, and his commandments, and his judgements, and to hearken to his voice. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promiſed thee, &c. And that thou maiſt be an holy people, &c. Is here no promiſe, when the promiſe is expreſt? and is here no Covenant, where the mutual Covenant is deſcribed? And I think you grant that Infants are included.
So Deut. 28.4, 9. Where the promiſe to the nation is, that if they hearken to Gods voice and obſerve his Commandments, they ſhall be bleſſed in the fruit of their bodies; and the Lord will eſtabliſh them a holy people to himſelf, as he had ſworn unto them.] Here is not only a Covenant and Promiſe for the future, but alſo an oath confirming it, as annexed to the ſame before. Is this eſtabliſhing Covenant on Promiſe but a tranſeunt fact? or doth not this confirm their right to the benefit promiſed, which was received before by the ſame means?
And Ezra 9.2. They are called the holy ſeed.
Of that in Deut. 29. I have formerly ſpoke enough. It is called a Covenant. All Iſrael with their little ones did enter the Covenant and the oath with God, and which he made to them. It was a Covenant, to eſtabliſh them for a people to himſelf, and that he may be to them a God, as he had before ſaid and ſworn. It is a Covenant made even with them that ſtood not there, whether it be meant only of the ſucceſſive Iſraelites (and then it is not a tranſeunt Covenant) or of all people whoever that will accept of the ſame terms (and then it's not proper to Iſrael.) It is a Covenant not made to them as meer Iſraelites: but as obedient to the Covenant terms, and Covenant breaking would cut them off, verſ. 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26. Is not Church-memberſhip contained in, Gods being their God, and taking them for his people thus in Covenant? Doth not the promiſe give them an eſtabliſhed right in this bleſſing? Is all this then no promiſe, but a tranſeunt fact?
Deut. 30.19. There is a law and promiſe, chooſe life, that thou and thy ſeed may live. This is the ſame Covenant which Aſa cauſed the people to enter, 2 Chron. 15. and if there had been no law for it, there would have been no penalty, and then he would not have made it death to withdraw. It is the ſame Covenant which Joſi…h cauſed the people to enter, 2 Kings 23.2, 3. 2 Chron. 34.31, 32. Of Levit. 25.41, 54, 55. I have ſpoken elſewhere, and of ſome other Texts.
Mr. T. — For the ſole efficient cauſe being actually put (as the Covenant and the Parents believing are, Deut. 29.) the effect muſt be in act: but it is not ſo in the unborn: therefore the Covenant and Parents faith are not the ſole efficient — ſo that though the Covenant give a Right to a bleſſing, yet it doth not make actually viſible Church-members, without ſome other tranſeunt fact —
Reply. (The reſt let the Reader make his beſt of.) We are it ſeems by this time in a fair way of agreement, and have almoſt done our work. It ſeemeth by this time he could find in his heart to grant that the Covenant is an efficient cauſe, though not the ſole efficient: well, we will not ſtick on that: Gods love and revelation, and Chriſts merits ſhall be antecedent chief efficients: And he ſeemeth now inſtead of ſaying ſtill that [It is only by the Phyſical tranſeunt fact] to be content if we will ſay, it is not till or without that fact, that is, that men are not members of the Church till they are men. We will not be ſo ſowre as to deny him that much. And indeed is this all at the upſhot? But I will not grant him the logical notion too eaſily, though we will not quarrel about it. I think a cauſe materially may long exiſt before the effect, though it be not formaliter cauſa till it effect: And I think that Gods conditional Covenant or Promiſe, is but cauſa virtualis & aptitudinalis till it effect, and yet may be the ſole proximate efficient of our Right afterward: I think the childs being born did not effect his Right to Church Relation, nor doth our Faith now, nor the Parents faith or conſent, but only as a condition make men capable Recipients. And I think the effect may begin de novo without any change in the efficient, upon a change in the Recipient: And that the Sun unchanged is the proximate efficient of motion, light and heat, to the next exiſtent wight that received not his influx before it did exiſt: And the Covenant or Donative Inſtrument of God which ſaith [He that believeth ſhall be juſtified] may effect my Juſtification when I believe and not before, though my faith effect it not at all, but diſpoſe the recipient. But I deny that the Parents faith being put, all the capacity of the recipient is put, even when he is born: For if it be poſſible for the Parent to conſent for himſelf and not for his child, and to devote himſelf and not his child to God, part of the condition of reception is wanting.
As far as I perceive, could I but hope to be ſo happy a diſputant, as to convince Mr. T. that Church-memberſhip (viſible) is any benefit at all it ſelf, or was to the Iſraelites, he would grant me all that I plead for of the conveyance of it by Covenant. And if I cannot it is a hard caſe.