Infant Baptism Gods Ordinance, Chapter 2
CHAP. II Containing the Firſt Argument for Infant Baptiſm.
IF God doth own the Infant Seed of Believers as his, then they ought to receive the Token of his ſo owning of them.
But God doth own the Infant Seed of Believers as his, therefore they ought to receive the Token of his ſo owning of them, which is Baptiſm.
Now that God doth own the Infant Seed of Believers as his, I prove by theſe Four Arguments.
1. If the Children of believing Parents are God's Children, their Sons and Daughters his Sons and Daughters, then God owns them.
But the Children of believing Parents are God's Children, as is evident, Ezek. 16.20, 21. Moreover, thou haſt taken thy ſons and thy daughters, whom thou haſt born unto me, and theſe haſt thou ſacrificed to be devoured: Thou haſt ſlain my children and delivered them to paſs through the fire for them. Theſe Idolatrous Iſraelites were at this time much degenerated, but yet God had not given them a bill of Divorce, the Covenant was not diſſolved; and therefore theſe Children born within the Covenant, were God's Children; and his, not merely by right of Creation, ſo all are his but by right of Covenant. There was little reaſon to believe the Parents were gracious; but however, being viſibly in covenant, God claims their Children as his own, as belonging to his Church and Family by a Covenant-Right.
2. If the Children of ſuch Parents, who are one or both of them Believers, are federally holy, then God owns them: but the former is true, 1 Cor: 7.14. therefore the latter, elſe were your children unclean; but now are they holy; the queſtion was, Whether when the Husband was a Believer, and the Wife an Unbeliever; or the Wife a Believer, and the Husband a Pagan, they might yet continue to live with the Unbeliever: To this the Apoſtle anſwers, they might, and gives this reaſon for it, viz. The unbeliever is ſanctified by the believer: Sanctified in Scripture uſually ſignifies either
1. Savingly ſanctified by Grace and Spiritual Life infuſed into the Soul by the Spirit of God: or,
2. Setting Perſons apart for ſome holy Uſe or Office; as the Prieſts, Sabbath, Tabernacle, and all the Utenſils thereof, and all the People of Iſrael who were circumciſed; but the unbelieving Husband or Wiſe here were ſanctified in neither of theſe reſpects; therefore it's otherwiſe to be underſtood. Candidatus eſt fidei, ſay ſome, they are in a fair way of being won over to the Faith of Chriſt, or prepared by God for ſuch a uſe; ſo ſanctified ſignifies in Iſa. 13.3. but the meaning is plainly this: That in regard that all the Faithful are Heirs of the Covenant of Grace, Gen. 17.1. I will eſtabliſh my covenant 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. Acts 2.39. The promiſe is to you, and to your children: This Promiſe being to believing Parents, and their Infants, this Covenant the unbelieving Party cannot undo by his or her unbelief; hence their Children were holy.
1. Not merely legitimate; for ſo they would have been, had both the Parents been Pagans; to ſay as the Anabaptiſts do, they are not Baſtards; is, ſaith Doctor Featly, a Baſtard Expoſition.
2. Nor can it be meant, that they are ſaved, juſtified and ſanctified by the Holy Ghoſt, (though if that were the ſenſe, it would not contradict but confirm the Doctrine of Infant Baptiſm; for whoever hath Juſtification and Sanctification, the thing ſignified by Baptiſm, hath undoubtedly a right to the Sign and Seal.
3. Then by holy muſt unavoidably be meant federally holy; i. e. within the Covenant; as the Infants of the Jews were a holy Seed, and had a right to Circumciſion; ſo the Infants of Chriſtian Parents, though but one of them a Believer, had a federal holineſs and a right to be baptiſed, as if both the Parents had been Believers.
4. If the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to little Children, then Chriſt owns them; but the Kingdom of Heaven doth belong to them, Matth. 19.13, 14. Then were there brought little children unto him, that he ſhould put his hands on them, and pray, and the diſciples rebuked them; But Jeſus ſaid, Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of ſuch is the kingdom of heaven. Here Chriſt declares the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them. By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant, either the Kingdom of Glory in the next World, or the Kingdom of Grace here; the latter is moſt probable, for ſo the Church is called, Matth. 22.1, 2.
Now be it the one, or the other, its evident Chriſt owned them as his.
5. If the promiſe of the Covenant of Grace may be made to the Infant Seed of Believers, then Chriſt owneth them; but the promiſe of the Covenant of Grace is to the Infant Seed of Believers, as well as to their believing Parents; Gen. 17.7. I will eſtabliſh my covenant between me and thee, and thy ſeed after thee in their generations for an everlaſting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and thy ſeed after thee. And this Promiſe the Apoſtle recites as belonging to all Believers, Acts 2.39. The promiſe is to you, and to your children.
Now from all it's abundantly evident, that God doth own the Children of believing Parents as his: Therefore they ought to receive the Token of his ſo owning them, which is Baptiſm. The concluſion is unavoidably; If it be evident God owns a Perſon, that Perſon ought to be baptized; let him ſhew, that can, any reaſon why a Perſon ſo owned by God ſhould not be admitted into the Church by Baptiſm.