The Infants Advocate of Circumcision and Baptism, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX. Whether the Children of Profane Parents, Baſtards, Expoſed Children, and the Captive Infants of Pagans are to be Baptized.
SOme maintain that infancy alone, is the requiſite to qualifie Infants to be Baptized: Others upon juſt grounds conceive a choice muſt be made of the infants admitted thereunto, and thoſe moſt ſcrupled at, fall under the following Quaternion.
The firſt are the Children of Profane Parents, living within the pale of the Church, ſuch as I may ſorrowfully terme Pagan Chriſtians; Chriſtians by their profeſſion; Pagans by their notorious viſible debauched converſation: Otherwiſe I confeſſe the words pious and profane in our modern Religious Canting, made by many words of party and intereſt, to cry up or decry ſuch who in private opinions, or civil concernments agree with, or diſſent from them; The queſtion is if ſuch profane Parents alone tender their children to baptiſm, and deſire the ſame, whether or no ought they to be admitted thereunto? I ſay alone, for if a good Grandfather or Grand-mother (the mediate Parent) ſurvive, conjoyn with them in ſuch a tender, the caſe is ſufficiently clear, that Baptiſm cannot be denied unto it.
I anſwer. If any one, related as kinred or friend to this childe, will undertake conditionally (viz. if he himſelf live, and God bleſſe his endeavours, farther then which, parents themſelves ought not to promiſe and cannot perform) for the education thereof, as Judah in another caſe, for the bringing up of his brother Benjamin out of Egypt, Gen. 43. 9. I will be ſurety for him, at my hands ſhalt thou require him, baptiſm ought not to be denied unto it.
Queſt. But ſuppoſe ſuch an undertaker cannot be found, ſeeing he who hateth [eſpecially Spiritual] ſuretiſhip is ſure, Prov. 11. 15. and one may juſtly ſuſpect according to the proverb, Ezek. 16. 44. As is the mother, ſo is the daughter; that ſuch a childe will follow the vicious examples and diſpoſitions of his parents.
Anſw. Here I deſire the Reader to call to mind (to ſpare my repetition thereof) what formerly Chap. 4. we have written of wicked mens ſharing in the foederal right to Circumciſion. Let him alſo conſider the Apoſtles words, Rom. 11. 16. If the root be holy ſo are the branches. Now the root we know is under ground, and unſeen; and, although the immediate parents be bad, yet charity commands us to believe, that, ſome generations removed, the anceſtors of this child (whom Divine Providence appointing the bounds of habitation, Acts 17. 26. would have born within the pale of the Church) might be holy and religious. We have a ſaying, Every beggar is deſcended from ſome King, and every King is deſcended from ſome beggar. Truer it is, that (if the pedegrees of people were ſtrictly examined) every pious perſon is extracted from ſome profane, and every profane from ſome pious anceſtor; a motive in my opinion not to deny baptiſm to the childe of bad parents if deſiring the ſame. Paſſe we from them to Baſtards, againſt whoſe baptizing ſome object.
Object. Baſtards amongſt the Jews were not to be Circumciſed, which may thus be proved: It was faſhionable for the mother at her purification, to preſent her Circumciſed ſon in the Temple to the Lord, as may appear by the example of the Virgin Mary Luke 2. 22. But Baſtards, Deut. 23. 2. were forbidden entrance into the congregation, unto the tenth generation: Therefore they were not Circumciſed.
Anſw. By the not entring into the congregation of the Lord, is meant, munus publicum in populo Dei ne gerito; let him not bear office in th… people of God. Indeed Jephthah, though the ſon of an harlot, Judg. 11. 2. was choſen a General, becauſe neceſſity conſtrained it; and Military offices; (where valour alone was a ſufficient qualification) were not confined to the regularity requiſite to religious employments: Otherwiſe certain it is, firſt, that wantonneſſe in this kinde was too frequent amongſt the Jews; our common expreſſion to commit folly with a woman, being borrowed from Thamars words to Amnon, 2. Sam. 13. 12. do not thou this folly. Secondly, that baſtards ſo begotten, were excluded Circumciſion, is what no wiſe or learned author durſt ever affirm.
More particularly: If the parents of baſtards publickly profeſſe their penitence to the congregation, they are remitted to the ſame eſtate they were in before the fault committed, and their children to be held as of unſtain'd extraction. Far be it from me to ſcatter any thing, which may occaſion the leaſt countenance to wantonneſſe in any. What ſaid the reſt of the Iſraelites, to the Reubenites? Joſh. 22. 17. Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleanſed until this day? that they ſhould contract (as they ſuſpected) the guilt of a new idolatry. Is original ſin too little to condemn a child, but that parents muſt double-hatch their children with guilt of their adulterous nativity? However, for the comfort of the penitent, know that only four females are mentioned in our Saviours pedegree, and all of them ſtigmatized. 1. Thamar inceſtuous. 2. Rahab an harlot. 3. Ruth a Moabiteſſe (and therefore a dog, no ſheep of Iſrael:) And 4ly the wife of Ʋriah, certainly an adultereſſe, and too probably privy to the murder of her huſband. Thus Chriſt came, as for ſinners, ſo from ſinners, & thoſe noted ones, for uncleanneſſe, whoſe children notwithſtanding were undoubtedly Circumciſed. As no bar of baſtardy can bolt out an infants right to the Sacrament, nor his benefit, by it if God will have it enter therein. Proceed we from theſe, to expoſed children, left on bulkes and benches by their parents deſerting them, whoſe title to baptiſm ſeems doubtful, and difficult to many on this account.
Object. The Children of thoſe who are worſe then infidels may not be baptized. But the parents of theſe children are worſe then infidels, 1 Tim. 5. 8. becauſe, not providing for them of their own houſe. Therefore they ought not to be baptized.
Anſw. Such who out of careleſneſſe or cruelty, wilfully refuſe to maintain their own, are in this particular act morally worſe then infidels (of whom many high Chriſtians fall ſhort in civil performances;) yea, worſe then birds, and beaſts, which hatch, and ſuckle their own young ones. Yet they are not in a ſpiritual capacity worſe then infidels, as if thereby they had forfeited their Sacramental right for them, and theirs. Beſides, charity herein commands us to preſume the beſt. That theſe parents are not with the Oſtrich, hardned againſt their young ones, as though they were not theirs; but that there being a long combate betwixt their induſtry, and poverty, the latter at laſt got the conqueſt; and they thereby forced to leave their children to a general providence. An act which may rather be in ſome ſort excuſed, then defended; yea, the cauſe thereof rather pittied, then the deed it ſelf in any ſort excuſed.
Say not, ſuch poor parents, overburthened with charge of children, ought to complain to the officers of … Church, who (no doubt) on the diſcovery of their ſad condition, would order their relief. Yea, it is ſuſpicious the cauſe of their poverty is not excuſable, whoſe pride is ſo damnable, that they would not ſeaſonably confeſſe the ſame to ſuch, who might, and ought to be helpful unto them. All this is confeſſed, with many more grains of guilt, which might be caſt into the ſcale of the parents; but of no weight on the other ſide, againſt the children, and therefore ought not to hinder their baptiſm, I mean conditionally, in caſe they were formerly baptized. Here I will not inſtance in expoſed children, who afterwards have proved eminent inſtruments of Gods glory in the Church and Common-wealth; ſo that, Pſal. 27. 10. when their father and mother forſook them, then the Lord took them up; yea, advanced them to high preferment: I ſay, I purpoſely forbear ſuch inſtancing, leſt the remembrance of the meanneſſe of their original, ſhould any whit abate our deſerved reſpect unto their memories.
It is faſhionable in ſuch caſes (eſpecially in popular places) for the whole pariſh to be loco parentis, and to be interpreted as the parent, for the education of ſuch expoſed children. For my own part I had rather bring oyl to, then caſt water on any charitable deſign. Yet give me leave, only to admoniſh ſuch to take heed, that that be not neglected of all, which is expected of many. It is the argument urged by Ariſtotle againſt Plato's fancy, that all children ſhould be brought up by the care, and at the coſt general of all alike, that what is every mans work is no mans work; and it is to be feared, the catechizing, and inſtructing ſuch children, will not effectually be done by any, where all are equally engaged unto it, except ſome be eminently and particularly deſigned for the ſame.
Children of Pagans remain, taken from them when infants: What the opinion of the Ancients was herein, we may learn from Fulgentius, De Veritate praedeſt. lib. 1. who ſaith, Parvulum parentibus infidelibus violenter ablatum, aut furto ſurreptum, ſi ad ſanctum baptiſmum quorumlibet Sanctorum pia charitate producatur, & mox ut baptizatus fuerit de hac vita diſcedat, factum eſſe haeredem Dei, & cohaeredem Chriſti. That a little child violently taken, or ſecretly ſtolen from infidel parents; if by the pious charity of any Saints, it be brought to holy baptiſm, and by and by ſo ſoon as it hath been baptized depart this life, is made the heir of God, and coheir of Chriſt.
However, becauſe ſome may think this goes too far, and that a difference ought to be made betwixt children of Chriſtian parents, who have (as Tertullian phraſeth it) Seminis praerogativam, The priviledge of the ſeed whence they ſpring; and thoſe of meer Heathens: And becauſe all things ought to be done in the Church, decently and in order; it is fitteſt and ſafeſt, that the baptizing of ſuch infants be deferred, till they be able in their own perſons to give an account of their faith. Such cautious deferring of the Sacrament, offereth no injury, nor occaſioneth any danger unto them, but will tend at laſt to their greater advantage.
When Mr Cranmer, (after Arch-Biſhop of Canterbury and Martyr) was appointed in Cambridge, Poſer extraordinary of the ſufficiency of ſuch who Commenced in Divinity; he denyed many their Degrees for want of competent ability for the ſame: Some of theſe, compelled by their repulſe to an harder ſtudy of the Scriptures, arrived at eminency afterwards (and by name Mr Barret of Norwich) and would commend*Fox Martyrol. p. 1860. and extoll Dr Cranmer, who by putting them back, put them forward to attain a better degree of knowledge, and perfection. If the Church beſtows her negative voice on ſuch children of Pagans, refuſing to baptize them till reſponſible for themſelves; they will have cauſe hereafter to bleſſe God, and thank the Church for the ſame, when the principles of Religion ſhall be more firmly faſtened, and the practice thereof more kindly ripened in them by ſuch forbearance of Baptiſm.