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…

You say that Infants were always in the Covenant of Grace; and to prove it, you mention Act. 2 38, 39. Repent, ⟨p. 60⟩and be baptized every one of you, &c. For the Promise is to you, and to your Children, &c.

You say that Infants were always in the Covenant of Grace; and to proveit, you mention Act. 2 38, 39. Repent, ⟨p. 60⟩and be baptized every one os you, &c. For the Promise is to you, and to your Children, &c.

Answ. Do we deny that the Promise of Pardon and of the holy Spirit doth belong to our Children or Off-spring that •o believe, or are called by the Lord? We grant it readily, but we do deny that this Promise here refers to our Seed as such. Dr. Taylor, late Bishop of Down, on this Text says,

And to your Children, that is, to you and to your Posterity, to you and to your Children, when they are of the same Capacity in which you are, effectually receptive of the Promise; but (saith he) if whenever the word [Children] is used in Scripture, we should by Children understand Infants, we must believe that in all Israel there were no Men, but all •ere Infants; and if that had been true, it had been the greater Wonder they should overcome the Anakims, and beat the King of Moab, and march so far, and discourse so well, for they were all called the Children of Israel The Promise appertains not to Infants in that Capacity and Consistence, but only by the Title of their being Reasonable Creatures, and when they come to act Faith, of which by Nature they have the Faculty. If it did, yet Baptism (saith he) is not the Means of conveying the Holy Ghost; for when Peter says, Repent and be baptized, and ye shall receive the holy Spirit, it signifies no more than this; First, Be baptized, and then by Imposition of Hands, &c. which was another Mystery and Rite, ye shall receive the Promise of the Father, &c. But then, saith he, from hence to argue, that wherever there is a Capacity of receiving the same Grace, there also the same Sign is to be administered, and from hence to infer Pedo-baptism, is an argument very fall cious, upon several Grounds. 1. Because Baptism is not the Sign of the Holy Ghost, but by another Mystery, it was conveyed ordinarily and extraordinarily, (that is, by laying on of Hands, as the Doctor mentioned before). 2. If the Supposition were true, the Proposition built upon it is false; for, saith he, they that were capable of the same Grace, are not always capable of the same Sign; for Women under the Law of Moses, although they were capable of the Righteousness of Faith, yet they were not capable of the Sign of Circumcision; for God doth not always convey his Grace in the same manner.