A26959:749
More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second…
More proofs of infants church-membership and consequently their right to baptism, or, A second defence of our infant rights and mercies in three parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for N. Simmons and J. Robinson, 1675
Chapter 4: Of Mr. Danvers's his Witnesses against Infant-Baptism.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 57. And whereas he saith that Cyprian urged not Tradition, I answer, there was no cause: For the question was not whether Infants should be baptized; much less whether they were to be dedicated in Covenant to God, and to be Church-members; but only whether they should be baptized before the eighth day: For Fidus thought that at one two or three days old they were so unclean as made them unmeet for baptism, and that the eighth day was the time of their purification; which Cyprian and the sixty six Bishops confuted, and showed that Gods mercy accepteth them from the beginning without respect to legal days. And what use was here for a plea from Tradition for Infant-baptism, which was not denied?
§. 57. And whereas he saith that Cyprian urged not Tradition, I answer, there was no cause: For the question was not whether Infants should be baptized; much less whether they were to be dedicated in Covenant to God, and to be Church-members; but only whether they should be baptized before the eighth day: For Fidus thought that at one two or three days old they were so unclean as made them unmeet for baptism, and that the eighth day was the time of their purification; which Cyprian and the sixty six Bishops confuted, and shewed that Gods mercy accepteth them from the beginning without respect to legal days. And what use was here for a plea from Tradition for Infant-baptism, which was not denied?
§. 58. And it seems to me to be a great evidence that the Tradition of the Church was then for it, in that this Council of Bishops (before true Popery was born) so unanimously determine of the day or time, and not one of them, ⟨p. 279⟩no nor Fidus himself that raised the doubt, did so much as raise any scruple or question about Infant-baptism it self at all: which sure they would have done on such an occasion if any or many Christians, or any Churches had denied it. No wonder therefore if Augustin so long after say that no Christian taketh it to be in vain?