A47535:557
Gold refined, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy…Gold refin'd, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy…
Gold refined, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy institution of Jesus Christ ... : wherein it is clearly evinced that baptism ... is immersion, or dipping the whole body, &c : also that believers are only the true subjects (and not infants) of that holy sacrament : likewise Mr. Smithies arguments for infant-baptism in his late book entitled, The non-communicant ... fully answered / by Benj. Keach ...Gold refin'd, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy institution of Jesus Christ ... : wherein it is clearly evinced that baptism ... is immersion, or dipping the whole body, &c : also that believers are only the true subjects (and not infants) of that holy sacrament : likewise Mr. Smythies arguments for infant-baptism in his late book entitled, The non-communicant ... fully answered / by Benj. Keach ...
London : Printed for the author, and are to be sold by Nathaniel Crouch ..., 1689
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
8. Is it not weak and an absurd thing to say, that Infants can't be Saved except they be Baptized, partly because Christ saith,1 Except a Man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God, Baptism, as some of you say, taking away Original Sin? As if it were in the power, and at the will of the Parents to save or damn their Children. For ⟨p. 167⟩this is intimated by this Notion of yours; If the Parents or Friends baptize the Child, it shall (if it die in its Infancy) be saved; but if they, nor no other, endeavour to get it Baptized, the Child is lost, and must perish.—How can outward Water,2 saith Mr. Charnock, convey inward-Life? How can Water, a material thing, work upon the Soul in a Physical manner? Neither can it be proved, That ever the Spirit of God is tied by any Promise, to apply himself to the Soul in its Gracious Operations, when the Body is applied to the Water. (He says, Water applied to the Body.) Because the adult Person (who sat under the preaching of the Word) cannot be saved without Regeneration. Can't God save poor dying Infants, unless the same change by the Spirits Operations pass upon them? Is not God a free Agent? may he not do what he pleases, and magnify his Grace to poor dying Infants, through the Blood of his Son, in other ways than we know of? Do not secret things belong to him, what Vanity is there in the minds of some Men?
8. Is it not weak and an absurd thing to say, that Infants can't be Saved except they be Baptized, partly because Christ saith,1 Except a Man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God, Baptism, as some of you say, taking away Original Sin? As if it were in the power, and at the will of the Parents to save or damn their Children. For ⟨p. 167⟩this is intimated by this Notion of yours; If the Parents or Friends baptize the Child, it shall (if it die in its Infancy) be saved; but if they, nor no other, indeavour to get it Baptized, the Child is lost, and must perish.—How can outward Water,2