The Grounds and Ends of the Baptism of the Children of the Faithful, Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI.
Silveſter.THe 4. evill conſequence which I have found gathered from the doctrine of the Baptiſme of Infants, is this, That it makes God the Author of mans beleeving an untruth, by enjoyning him to beleeve the ſalvation of ſuch as hee himſelfe knowes and reveales the contrary, as Iſmael, Eſau, and but a remnant among the Jews, nay none at all but ſuch as beleeve, Gen. 17. Gen. 25. Gen. 48. Rom. 9.27. Againſt which opinion and evills aforeſaid, I Argue thus: The Covenant is abſolute and ſaving to all once within the ſame. But all the perſonal ſeed of beleevers are not ſaved, Therefore all the ſeede of beleevers are not in the Covenant of Grace. The propoſition is cleare from theſe Scriptures. Jer. 32.40. Iſay 49.21. Jer. 31.3. Ioh. 13.1. Mal. 3.6. Ioh. 10.28, 29. The aſſumption from theſe, Gen. 21.10. with Gal. 4.29, 30. Gen. 25.23. with Rom. 9.11, 12, 13, 27. God requireth no man to beleeve untruth, therfore God requireth no ſuch thing.
Silvanus.I doe not delight to take exception at words, when one may gueſſe at your meaning, though it bee contrary to your words. But becauſe you would pick an argument, from a true doctrine of God, to gather an evill conſequence, that ſo God ſhould bee an Author to make a man beleeve, that which he himſelf knoweth and revealeth the contrary: I conceive it to tend to the glory of God to obſerve, that your ſelf in laying downe this Argument doe expreſſe your ſelfe contrary to that which you know to bee your meaning: and doe affirme God to know that, which you know is contrary to his knowledge. For you expreſly make it an untruth and contrary to what God himſelfe knoweth and revealeth to beleeve the ſalvation (I doe not ſay of Iſmael and Eſau, for it is an untruth indeed to beleeve their ſalvation) but to beleeve the ſalvation of a remnant among the Jews, nay of none at all, but ſuch as doe beleeve. Truely if God had not blinded you for offering to argue God to be an Author of an untruth, upon the ſuppoſition of the Baptiſme of infants (which is an holy truth of God) you would never have delivered ſo palpable an untruth contrary to your owne knowledge, as to ſay, this is an untruth contrary to what God himſelf knoweth and reveales, to beleeve the ſalvation of a remnant among the Jews, nay of none at all but ſuch as beleeve. But to leave your inconſiderate boldneſſe in arguing God of an untruth, which falleth upon your ſelfe; to your Argument I anſwer (as before) by denying your propoſition. This I deny, that the Covenant of Grace is abſolute and ſaving unto all once within the ſame: you heape up many Scriptures to prove it, but none of them without violence will bee wreſted to beare witneſſe to it; your firſt Scripture in Ier. 32.40. Doe you thinke it ſpeaketh of all the people, whom God brought out of Babel into Hieruſalem againe? or of the Elect onelyonly? If of all the people, (as v. 38. might ſeeme to imply) ſurely the Covenant of Grace was not abſolute and ſaving to them all. There was among them Shemajah, and Noadiah falſe Prophets which ſought to diſcourage the hands of Nehemiah in his work, N…hem▪ 6.10. to 14. And there were alſo Nobles of Iudah, that kept intelligence with Tobiah, and were ſworne to him, v. 17, 18, 19. and can you thinke that the Covenant of Grace was abſolute and ſtable unto ſuch as theſe? But if you meane that the Covenant of Grace was abſolute & ſtable to the elect ſeed, you ſpeake truely and ſafely, and therein alſo wee agree with you. But then you muſt not ſtand to your former propoſition, that the Covenant of Grace is abſolute and ſtable unto all once within the ſame. For as it was before the captivity, there were ſome that brake the everlaſting Covenant, Iſa. 24.5. and therefore ſome were once within the Covenant, to whom it was not abſolute and ſtable: ſo was it alſo after the captivity, that Covenant promiſed to give them one heart, that they might feare the Lord for ever, for the good of them, and of their children afte… them, verſe 39. And yet ſome of them did not feare God themſelves, and many of their children did ſoone degenerate, in ſo much that in the dayes of Malachi the whole Nation fel to the robbery of God and were curſed with a curſe in ſtead of the ſure mercies of the Covenant, Mal. 3.9. The other Scriptures which you doe alledge to prove your propoſition (that the Covenant of Grace is abſolute and ſtable unto all once within the ſame) they none of them ſpeake to your purpoſe. The Text in Iſay 49.21. ſpeaketh that the Church ſhall wonder at the increaſe of her children, after ſhee had loſt the other, and ſhall therefore enquire, who had begotten theſe to her. But what maketh this to prove that the Covenant of Grace is abſolute and ſtable to all thoſe who are once within the ſame? It rather proveth that ſome of the children of the Church, and ſo ſome within the Covenant of the Church have beene loſt, and that is contrary to your propoſition.
Your next place in Ierem. 31.3. holdeth forth that God loved the houſe of Iſrael with an everlaſting love; and the text in Ioh. 13.1. declareth that whom Chriſt loveth hee loveth to the end: And that in Mal. 3.6. teacheth us that the Lord Jehovah is unchangeable, and therefore that the ſonnes of Iacob periſh not. And your laſt place in Ioh. 10.28, 29. ſheweth us that Chriſt giveth …nto his ſheepe everlaſting life, that they ſhall never periſh. But what is all this to prove that none are within the Covenant of grace but ſuch as God loveth with an everlaſting unchangeable love unto the end, and who ſhall receive everlaſting life? All theſe places doe prove indeed that God hath a people to whom his love is ſtable and alſo abſolute, but ſaith nothing to any ſuch purpoſe, that all once within the Covenant of Grace doe partake in this ſtate of abſolute unchangeable and everlaſting love and life of Chriſt.