A47605:300
The rector rectified and corrected, or, Infant-baptism unlawful being a sober answer to a…
The rector rectified and corrected, or, Infant-baptism unlawful being a sober answer to a late pamphlet entitled An argumentative and practical discourse of infant-baptism, published by Mr. William Burkit, rector of Mildin in Suffolk : wherein all his arguments for pedo-baptism are refuted and the necessity of immersion, i.e. dipping, is evidenced, and the people falsely called Anabaptists are cleared from those unjust reproaches and calumnies cast upon them : together with a reply to the Athenian gazette added to their 5th volume about infant-baptism : with some remarks upon Mr. John Flavel's last book in answer to Mr. Philip Cary / by Benjamin Keach.The rector rectified and corrected, or, Infant-baptism unlawful being a sober answer to a late pamphlet entituled An argumentative and practical discourse of infant-baptism, published by Mr. William Burkit, rector of Mildin in Suffolk : wherein all his arguments for pedo-baptism are refuted and the necessity of immersion, i.e. dipping, is evidenced, and the people falsly called Anabaptists are cleared from those unjust reproaches and calumnies cast upon them : together with a reply to the Athenian gazette added to their 5th volume about infant-baptism : with some remarks upon Mr. John Flavel's last book in answer to Mr. Philip Cary / by Benjamin Keach.
London: printed by John Harris, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
THE Rector Rectified, and Corrected: OR, Infant-Baptism Unlawful. › Chapter 3
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.
If Infants are capable of Spiritual Benefit by Baptism, then Baptism may and ought to be administered to Infants; if they are capable of the inward visible Grace, sure they may partake of the outward and visible Sign; if the Word of the Promise doth belong to them, surely the Seal of the Promise ought not to be withheld from them.
If Infants are capable of Spiritual Benefit by Baptism, then Baptism may and ought to be administred to Infants; if they are capable of the inward visible Grace, sure they may partake of the outward and visible Sign; if the Word of the Promise doth belong to them, surely the Seal of the Promise ought not to be withheld from them.
But, say you, the former is true, viz. That Infants are capable of Benefits by Baptism; therefore the latter is true, they ought to be Baptized. There are, amongst others, two special Blessings, and spiritual Benefits which Infants are capable of by Baptism, namely, Remission of Sin, and Regeneration.
1. Remission of Sin; this being an Act of gracious Favour in God, discharging a Person from his obnoxiousness to Wrath upon the score of Guilt contracted, an Infant is certainly as capable of this Act of Favour, as a grown Person. To prove this, you bring in a Simile, That an Infant of a Traitor is as capable of the benefit of the King's gracious Favour, as the Father himself. Suppose the King should send for a Traitor's Child out of the Cradle, (say you) and before all his Courtiers declare, That whereas the Blood of that Child was attainted by its Father's Treason, and therefore, according to Law, its whole Inheritance became forfeited to the Crown; yet, says the King, I will pardon this Infant freely, and restore him to all his forfeited Rights; and in token thereof, I command one of my Ministers to wash the Infant in pure Water, signifying thereby to all my Subjects, that he is cleansed from his original Attainder and Corruption of Blood, and that I am perfectly reconciled to him.