The Infants Advocate of Circumcision and Baptism, Chapter 17
CHAP. XVII. An Objection Anſwered, drawn from the inability of Infants to repent and believe.
ALthough we conceive this formerly ſatisfied, yet finding it to recur in our proceedings, we will repeat ſomething in our larger Anſwer thereunto. We perceive many men infidels in the point of infants faith, and do not believe that they do or can believe; whoſe diſtruſt is principally grounded on theſe two cauſes; partly becauſe infants cannot evidence their believing to others, partly becauſe men cannot conceive the manner of infants belief.
To the firſt of theſe we ſay, it is injurious to conclude infants incapable of believing, becauſe they cannot manifeſt it to others. On the ſame account, and with as much truth and right, one might deny reaſonable ſouls to infants, becauſe they neither do nor can make any expreſſion thereof.
Let matters be meaſured by outward appearance, and the young ones of bruit beaſts, ſeem more rational, (though indeed it be but natural inſtinct in them) then any childe whatſoever. A Lamb new wean'd, and Chicken new hatch'd, know their Dam, can ſtand, go, do many things in order to their ſelf-preſervation better then a new-born infant, and yet no wiſe man will pronounce them more reaſonable then a childe.
Yea, give me leave a little here to make an uſeful digreſſion.
There is no one miſtake wch hath betrayed mens judgements to more abſurdities, in the points of Circumciſion and Baptiſm, then a miſapprehenſion in making the body the ſtandard of the ſoul, and meaſuring the ſame by the proportion thereof. I am afraid there be too many, who conceive ſouls like the pipes in an Organ, ſome longer, ſome ſhorter, ſome leſſer, ſome larger; and fancy degrees of their dimenſions, variable with their ages. So that a new-born infant ſhould have a ſmal ſoul, a weaned childe a ſoul ſomewhat greater, and ſo ſucceſſively, that the ſouls of boyes, youths▪ ſtriplings, men, ſhould gradually exceed one another in greatneſſe.
Yea, I am afraid, that ſome do farther extend this their falſe apprehenſion, even to imagine, that at the laſt day of Judgement, the ſouls of ſuch who died in their infancy ſhall appear before Gods Tribunal, little diminutive Spirits. This conceit makes men behold infants with diſdainful eyes, accounting them but Cyphers, which ſignifie but little in nature, and nothing in Religion. To rectifie their erroneous judgements, let them know, that all reaſonable ſouls as created by God, and firſt infuſed into bodies, are equal in their eſſence; and that ſomething extrinſical and adventitious, cauſeth that grand diſparity betwixt ſouls in their natural, moral, and ſupernatural operations.
1. In their natural, as the wiſe man, and the fool are equal in their death, Eccleſ. 2. 16. ſo alſo in their birth, not only in the manner thereof▪ but in this reſpect of an adequation of all the eſſentials of their ſouls. The different tempers of their brains, and more or leſſe perfect fabrick of their bodies, differenceth them in their actions, who in their beings are alike.
2. In their moral. That which makes the difference betwixt them is this▪ Firſt, education beſtowed on one more then another, whereby he arrives at a perfection above his equals. Secondly, Habits of vertues or vices, which one hath acquired more or leſſe then the other.
3. In their ſupernatural. Only the diſtinction ariſeth from infuſed graces, more plentifully conferred on one then another, and from the holy improvement thereof, which one, frugal in goodneſſe, makes above him which is an unthrift therein.
Thus the ſpecies, or kind with all ſpecifical perfections, are not partial to one individuum, to make that a favourite more then another, but all indifferently partake thereof: And as amongſt the Iſraelites, Exod. 16. 18. all had their juſt omer of manna; ſo the man, yea the giant, hath no more of the reaſonable ſoul then the Dwarfe or the Infant, all ſhare alike in the eſſence thereof.
The ſame may be ſaid of the ſouls of Children and men. The eſſentials of a childs ſoul are as large and ample to all purpoſes and intents, as that of a man. The houſekeeper is the ſame, though pent for rooms he cannot make the like entertainment.
Indeed we read, Rev. 20. 12. I ſaw the dead, great and ſmall, ſtand before God: and the books were open, &c. But the inequality there, relates not unto their ſouls and the eſſences thereof, but to their conditions wherein they were eſtated when alive, Pſal. 49. 2. Low and high, rich and poor together.
What matters it then, though Children cannot diſcover, and though men cannot perceive their belief? It follows not but that God may ſee, what a child is not ſenſible of in it ſelf nor others in it. God judgeth not as man judgeth, nor doth he ſee as man ſeeth. Man only beholdeth the out-ſide of childrens operations, loaden with defects ariſing from their bodily indiſpoſition; Gods ſees the heart, and (what mainly moveth therein) the ſoul, and (age being meetly circumſtantial and accidental thereunto) it maketh no odds at all in Gods diſcovery therein, who can ſee in them that beliefe, which we cannot behold.
But ſuppoſe the worſt that Infants neither do nor can believe, yet this cannot be a bar to their Covenanting in Baptiſm, no more then it was to the Jewiſh children in Circumciſion. Their tender age knew not what a Covenant with God meant. Nor had they feeling how thereby they were engaged to keep the Law; Nor underſtood what did belong to the inward Circumciſion of the heart, yet were vouchſafed to be foederati cum Deo; So it can be no bar to the children of Chriſtian parents to receive a ſeal of covenantſhip with Chriſt, albeit they at that time want reaſon to know the nature of a Covenant, nor how they put on Chriſt, nor what it is to believe, and to be waſhed clean from ſin. There is no more abſurdity or inconſequence upon one then the other.