shall in no wise enter therein;" that is, without that nakedness and freedom from obstruction and impediment, none shall enter.

Upon the account of this truth, all that long harangue that pursues this dilemma in other words to the same purposes, will quickly come to nothing. For baptism is not a mere ceremony, but assisted by the grace of the Lord Jesus, the communication of the Holy Spirit; and yet it requires a duty on our part when we are capable of duty, and need it; but is enabled to produce its effects without any positive disposition, even by the negative of children, by their not putting a bar to the Holy Spirit of God, that God may be glorified, and may be all in all.

Two particulars more are considerable in their argument. The first is a syllogism made up out of the words of St. Paul," All that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ"." The minor proposition is, with a little straining some other words of St. Paul, thus, but they that put on Christ,' or 'the new man, must be formed in righteousness and holiness of truth;' for so the Apostle, "Put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." But infants cannot put on Christ to any such purposes, and therefore cannot be baptized into Christ. I answer, that to put on Christ is to become like unto him, and we put him on in all ways by which we resemble him. The little babes of Bethlehem were like unto Christ, when it was given to them to die for him who died for them and us: we are like unto him when we have put on his robe of righteousness, when we are invested with the wedding-garment, when we submit to his will and to his doctrine, when we are adopted to his inheritance, when we are innocent, and when we are washed, and when we are buried with him in baptism. The expression is a metaphor, and cannot be confined to one particular signification: but if it could, yet the Apostle does not say, that all who in any sense put on the new man, are actually holy and righteous; neither does he say, that by the 'new man' is meant Christ, for that also is another metaphor, and it means a new manner of living. When Christ is opposed to Adam, Christ is called the new man;' but when the new man is opposed to the old conversation, then by the new man' Christ is not meant: and so it is in this • Eph. iv. 24,

■ Gal. iii. 27.

For

place, it signifies to become a new man, and it is an exhortation to those who had lived wickedly, now to live holily and according to the intentions of Christianity. But to take two metaphors from two several books, and to concentre them into one signification, and to make them up into one syllogism, is fallacia quatuor terminorum;' they prove nothing but the craft of the men, or the weakness of the cause. the words to the Ephesians were spoken to them who already had been baptized, who had before that in some sense put on Christ, but yet he calls upon them to put on the new man; therefore this is something else; and it means that they should verify what they had undertaken in baptism: which also can concern children, but is seasonable to urge it to them, as St. Paul does to the Ephesians, after their baptism.

But yet after all, let the argument press as far as it is intended, yet infants, even in the sense of the Apostle, "do put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness" for so are they; they are a new creation,' they are 'born again,' they are efformed after the image of Christ, by the designation and adoption of the Holy Spirit: but as they cannot do acts of reason, and yet are created in a reasonable nature; so they are anew created in righteousness, even before they can do acts spiritual; that is, they are 'designati sanctitatis,' as Tertullian's expression is; they are in the second birth as in the first, instructed with the beginnings and principles of life, not with inherent qualities, but with titles and relations to promises and estates of blessing and assistances of holiness; which principles of life, if they be nourished, will express themselves in perfect and symbolical actions. The thing is easy to be understood by them who observe the manner of speaking usual in Scripture. 'We are begotten to a lively hope,' so St. Paul: the very consignation and designing us to that hope, which is laid up for the saints, is a new birth, a regeneration, the beginnings of a new life and of this infants are as capable as any.

The other thing is this, that the infants' vow is invalid till it be after confirmed in the days of reason; and therefore it were as good to be let alone, till it can be made with effect. I answer, that if there were nothing in the sacrament but the making of a vow, I confess I could see no necessity in it, nor any convenience, but that it engages chil

dren to an early piety, and their parents and guardians by their care to prevent the follies of their youth: but then when we consider that infants receive great blessings from God in this holy ministry, that what is done to them on God's part, is of great effect before the ratification of their vow, this prudential consideration of theirs is light and airy.

And after all this it will be easy to determine which is the surer way. For certainly to baptize infants is hugely agreeable to that charity, which Christ loved in those who brought them to him; and if infants die before the use of reason, it can do them no hurt that they were given to God in a holy designation; it cannot any way be supposed, and is not pretended by any one, to prejudice their eternity: but if they die without baptism, it is then highly questioned whether they have not an intolerable loss. And if it be questioned by wise men whether the want of it do not occasion their eternal loss, and it is not questioned whether baptism does them any hurt or no, then certainly to baptize them is the surer way without all peradventure.

Ad 33.-The last number sums up many words of affrightment together, but no argument, nothing but bold and unjustifiable assertions; against which I only oppose their direct contradictories. But instead of them the effect of the former discourse is this, that whoever shall pertinaciously deny or carelessly neglect the baptism of infants, does uncharitably expose his babes to the danger of an eternal loss, from which there is no way to recover but an extraordinary way, which God hath not revealed to us; he shuts them out of the church, and keeps them out who are more fit to enter than himself; he, as much as lies in him, robs the children of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and a title to the promises evangelical; he supposes that they cannot receive God's gifts unless they do in some sense or other deserve them, and that a negative disposition is not sufficient preparation to a new creation, and an obediential capacity is nothing, and yet it was all that we could have in our first creation; he supposes that we must do something before the first grace, that is, that God does not love us first, but we first love him; that we seek him, and he does not seek us; that we are beforehand with him, and therefore can do something without him; that nature can alone bring us to God. For if he did not suppose

all this, his great pretence of the necessity of faith and repentance would come to nothing: for infants might without such dispositions receive the grace of baptism, which is always the first; unless by the superinducing of actual sins upon our nature, we make it necessary to do something to remove the hinderances of God's Spirit, and that some grace be accidentally necessary before that which ordinarily and regularly is the first grace. He, I say, that denies baptism to infants, does disobey Christ's commandment, which being in general and indefinite terms, must include all that can be saved, or can come to Christ; and he excepts from Christ's commandment whom he pleases, without any exception made by Christ; he makes himself lord of the sacrament, and takes what portions he pleases from his fellow-servants, like an evil and an unjust steward; he denies to bring little children to Christ, although our dearest Lord commanded them to be brought; he upbraids the practice and charity of the holy catholic church, and keeps infants from the communion of saints, from a participation of the promises, from their part of the covenant, from the laver of regeneration, from being rescued from the portion of Adam's inheritance, from a new creation, from the kingdom of God, which belongs to them and such as are like them. And he that is guilty of so many evils, and sees such horrid effects springing from his doctrine, must quit his error, or else openly profess love to a serpent, and direct enmity to the most innocent part of mankind.

I do not think the Anabaptists perceive or think these things to follow from their doctrine: but yet they do so really. And therefore the effect of this is, that their doctrine is wholly to be reproved and disavowed, but the men are to be treated with the usages of a Christian: strike them not as an enemy, but exhort them as brethren. They are with all means Christian and human to be redargued or instructed: but if they cannot be persuaded, they must be left to God, who knows every degree of every man's understanding, all his weaknesses and strengths, what impress every argument makes upon his spirit, and how uncharitable every reason is, and he alone judges of his ignorance or his malice, his innocency or his avoidable deception. We have great reason to be confident as to our own part of the question;

but it were also well if our knowledge would make us thankful to God, and humble in ourselves, and charitable to our brother. It is pride that makes contention, but humility is the way of peace and truth.

SECTION XIX.

That there may be no Toleration of Doctrines inconsistent with Piety, or the public Good.

1. BUT then for their other capital opinion, with all its branches, that it is not lawful for princes to put malefactors to death, nor to take up defensive arms, nor to minister an oath, nor to contend in judgment, it is not to be disputed with such liberty as the former. For although it be part of that doctrine which Clemens Alexandrinus P says was delivered "per secretam traditionem apostolorum, non licere Christianis contendere in judicio, nec coram gentibus nec coram sanctis; et perfectum non debere jurare;" and the other part seems to be warranted by the eleventh canon of the Nicene council, which enjoins penance to them that take arms after their conversion to Christianity: yet either these authorities are to be slighted, or be made receptive of any interpretation, rather than the commonwealth be disarmed of its necessary supports, and all laws made ineffectual and impertinent. For the interest of the republic and the wellbeing of bodies politic, is not to depend upon the nicety of our imaginations, or the fancies of any peevish or mistaken priests; and there is no reason a prince should ask John-a-Brunck whether his understanding would give him leave to reign, and be a king. Nay, suppose there were divers places of Scripture which did seemingly restrain the political use of the sword; yet since the avoiding a personal inconvenience hath by all men been accounted sufficient reason to expound Scripture to any sense rather than the literal, which infers an unreasonable inconvenience (and therefore the pulling out an eye,' and the 'cutting off a hand,' is expounded by mortifying a vice, and killing a criminal habit), much rather must the allegations against the

P Lib. 7. Strom.