A47591:154
Light broke forth in Wales, expelling darkness, or, The Englishman's love to the ancient…Light broke forth in Wales, expelling darkness, or, The Englishman's love to the antient…
Light broke forth in Wales, expelling darkness, or, The Englishman's love to the ancient Britons [sic] being an answer to a book, intituled [sic] Children's baptism from Heaven, published in the Welsh tongue by Mr. James Owen / by Benjamin Keach.Light broke forth in Wales, expelling darkness, or, The Englishman's love to the antient Britains [sic] being an answer to a book, iutituled [sic] Children's baptism from Heaven, published in the Welsh tongue by Mr. James Owen / by Benjamin Keach.
London: printed by William Marshall, 1696
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.
Remark. If Baptism is an Evidence of our Faith in Christ, then it must only belong to Believers. How can it be an Evidence of Faith in Infants who are not capable to believe? they know not the Object of Faith, nor can they exert any Act of Faith. It must be an Evidence to the Subject when baptized, and so the Scriptures you cite hold forth: He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, Mark 16. 16. it doth not say, he that is baptized and believeth. If thou believest with all thy Heart thou mayst: Not if thou shalt believe hereafter, but if thou dost believe now. It appertains to such who have Faith when baptized, and it evidences such a Faith to the Person; nay Faith is required of them before they are to be baptized. And so saith the Church of England.
3dly. You say, It is the Bond of Holiness, 1 Pet. 3. 21. the Apostle exhorts the Christians to be dead unto Sin, and alive unto Righteousness. There is a Virtue in the Ordinances of God answerable to the End for which they are ordained, &c.
Remark. Still, Reader, know that it is a Bond to the Adult only, Infants are not able to die to Sin, nor live unto Holiness: They cannot answer a good Conscience by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. Ordinances have no more Virtue in them to an Infant, than if you should water a dead Tree. There can be no increase in Holiness without the Grace of Holiness in the Habit be first infused; and if the Seed of Holiness be [first] infused in Infants before Baptism, or in Baptism, that Seed would remain in them, and appear as soon as they come to Understanding, 1 Joh. 3. 9. But that any such Seed or vital Principle is either way in Infants as such, whether Infants of Believers, or others, appears not; but contrary-wise, nothing appears in them when grown up, but the cursed Seed of Sin, and so it will until their Natures be changed by Divine Grace.