More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second…

Now if God have made a Law that men shall be received members of Christ and his Church if they consent (or Repent and Believe) and formerly to the Israelites, if they be Consenters (or their seed, who consent by them) then it is an act of distributive justice of God as Judge, to give these benefits to Consenters: And to contradistinguish an act of bounty unless he say [mere bounty] is intolerable. For God governeth us Paternally, as a Regent-benefactor: He never gave reward to a Creature, Man or Angel, which was not a Gift as to the value of the thing, and a Reward ⟨p. 42⟩only as to the ordo conferendi & ratio recipiendi: It is madness to think that we can merit from God commutatively. And it's little better to think that bounty and distributive justice may not consist; yea that there can be any right quoad ordinem distribuendi from that justice, which is not quoad rem donatam from bounty. It is sad therefore that the world must see, that looking all how to make good an espoused cause, should tempt so Ancient and Learned a Divine to subvert the Gospel and all Christianity: For what doth he less? If he talk only of members by obligation, every living man is a member: This he meaneth not. If he talk only of Consenting voluntary Members, to say that God commandeth none to be such, is to say that he commandeth none to be Christians, to Repent, Believe or Consent: To say that he hath made no promise or Donative Act in the Law of Grace, that if you consent (repent and believe) you shall have union with Christ and his Church (or be members) is to deny the very sum of all the Gospel, and Baptism it self. To say that God doth not as Judge execute his own Law and promise, giving this union to Consenters, and denying it to Refusers, is to say that he will not as a Judge absolve Believers or condemn Unbelievers. O Reader, hate faction and partial disputes that can make men overthrow all Christianity, not knowing what they do.

Now if God have made a Law that men shall be received members of Christ and his Church if they consent (or Repent and Believe) and formerly to the Israelites, if they be Consenters (or their seed, who consent by them) then it is an act of distributive justice of God as Judge, to give these benefits to Consenters: And to contradistinguish an act of bounty unless he say [meer bounty] is intolerable. For God governeth us Paternally, as a Regent-benefactor: He never gave reward to a Creature, Man or Angel, which was not a Gift as to the value of the thing, and a Reward ⟨p. 42⟩