Of domesticall duties eight treatises. I. An exposition of that part of Scripture out…

In two things do Papists exceed, | 1. In the necessity | Of Baptism. 2. In the efficacy | |

In two things doe Papists exceed, | 1. In the necessitie | Of Baptisme. 2. In the efficacie | |

They make it so absolutely necessary, as if any die unbaptized ⟨p. 64⟩he cannot be saved: which doom they pass against infants, though they be deprived thereof without any fault of their own, yea or of their parents, being still borne. A merciless sentence without any warrant of Gods word: yea against his word & against the order which he hath prescribed. He hath established ¹his covenant, & promised to be the God of the faithful & of their seed: on which ground S. Peter saith, The promise is unto ²you & unto your children: & S. Paul saith, your children are holy. ³Shall all these privileges be made void by an inevitable want ⁴of baptism? if so, would God have enjoined circumcision (which to the Jews was as baptism is to Christians) to be put off to the eighth day, before which day many infants died? or would Moses have suffered it to be forborne all the time that the Israelites were in the wilderness? If it be said that baptism is more necessary then circumcision, I answer, the Scripture layeth no more necessity upon it. If it were so necessary as they make it, then the virtue of Christs death were less effectual since he was actually exhibited then before. For before it was effectual for infants without a Sacrament, but belike not now. Had the ancient Churches conceived so of the absolute necessity of baptism, they would not have had set times for the administering thereof: nor suffered it to be put off so long as they did.