The Minor is easily proved: Can any thing reflect more upon the Honour of Christ, &c. than this? as if he should neglect to speak out his Mind and Will to us plainly, or be so careless about it, that sorry Man is forced to try his Wit to supply what is defective and wanting in ⟨p. 97⟩this Matter in Christ's Word; for he is strangely left of God and benighted, who will not confess Infant Baptism to need much of humane Craft and Cunning to make it out from Christ's New Testament; and when he has done all, he leaves it as doubtful as he found it in the Judgment of indifferent Persons. Did Moses deal thus with the Children of Israel? No, no. How careful was he to deliver every Law, Statute, and Ordinance exactly, particularly the Law of the Passover! Do but read how careful and circumspect he was in that, in all respects and matters relating to it. Nay, and the Wisdom of God was such, to leave nothing then in the dark, but gave order that all Things might be made plain, that he that run might read it, and he that did read, might know the Duty, i. e. the Statu•e or Ordinance, (tho in many things they might need instruction how in a right Spirit to be found in it, and what it signified.) But I dare affirm, no Man who reads the New Testament, from the beginning of Matthew to the end of the Revelations, a thousand times over, shall ever from that Holy Word, or any place or part of it, find it to be his Duty to baptize his Child; the Word of God is powerful in convincing Men of their Duties, as well as of their Sins; but in this it fails, it has no Power to convince Mens Consciences. The Faith of Persons must stand in the Wit and Subtlety of Men, in respect of Infant-Baptism, and not in the Power of God, and efficacy of his blessed Word. Let some show us the Person, who only by reading the New Testament was convinced of Infant-Baptism; though, 'tis true, divers by reading of the Writings of Learned Men, and their subtle and sophistical Arguments, (for so I must call them) have been persuaded to believe it to be ⟨p. 98⟩of God.—Yet, after all, some of them have plainly signified the great Ground and Argument they build upon, is this, viz. Because such and such Learned, Godly, and Wise Men, assert it to be a Truth of Christ. So that it appears very clear, they build their Faith herein, not upon the Authority of God's Word, but upon the Credit and Authority of Men.
The Minor is easily proved: Can any thing reflect more upon the Honour of Christ, &c. than this? as if he should neglect to speak out his Mind and Will to us plainly, or be so careless about it, that sorry Man is forc'd to try his Wit to supply what is defective and wanting in ⟨p. 97⟩this Matter in Christ's Word; for he is strangely left of God and benighted, who will not confess Infant Baptism to need much of humane Craft and Cunning to make it out from Christ's New Testament; and when he has done all, he leaves it as doubtful as he found it in the Judgment of indifferent Persons. Did Moses deal thus with the Children of Israel? No, no. How careful was he to deliver every Law, Statute, and Ordinance exactly, particularly the Law of the Passover! Do but read how careful and circumspect he was in that, in all respects and matters relating to it. Nay, and the Wisdom of God was such, to leave nothing then in the dark, but gave order that all Things might be made plain, that he that run might read it, and he that did read, might know the Duty, i. e. the Statu•e or Ordinance, (tho in many things they might need instruction how in a right Spirit to be found in it, and what it signified.) But I dare affirm, no Man who reads the New Testament, from the beginning of Matthew to the end of the Revelations, a thousand times over, shall ever from that Holy Word, or any place or part of it, find it to be his Duty to baptize his Child; the Word of God is powerful in convincing Men of their Duties, as well as of their Sins; but in this it fails, it has no Power to convince Mens Consciences. The Faith of Persons must stand in the Wit and Subtilty of Men, in respect of Infant-Baptism, and not in the Power of God, and efficacy of his blessed Word. Let some shew us the Person, who only by reading the New Testament was convinced of Infant-Baptism; though, 'tis true, divers by reading of the Writings of Learned Men, and their subtil and sophistical Arguments, (for so I must call them) have been perswaded to believe it to be ⟨p. 98⟩of God.—Yet, after all, some of them have plainly signified the great Ground and Argument they build upon, is this, viz. Because such and such Learned, Godly, and Wise Men, assert it to be a Truth of Christ. So that it appears very clear, they build their Faith herein, not upon the Authority of God's Word, but upon the Credit and Authority of Men.
