the doctrine of baptism/chapter 19

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A Plain Christian Treatise, explaining
the Doctrine of Baptism, and the two
Covenants made with Abraham, and
his two-fold Seed.

Thus you see this objection answered. There is no ground for children's baptism, but an imagination, through thick darkness, upon the minds of people. They have set up this idol in their hearts. God has answered them accordingly as the Prophet speaks in Ezek. 14:2-5:

And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put their stumbling block of their iniquity before their face, should I be inquired of at all by them? therefore speak unto them, thus saith the Lord, Every man of the house of Israel, that setteth up his Idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the Prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his Idols, that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their Idols.

Here you see that when souls set up an idol in their heart, God does answer them according to their idol, as He did in this case, suffering blind blindness and uncertainty of judgment to befall them.

Defenders of Infant's Baptism Do Grant That They Have No Grounds For It
From the New Testament

For such as defend children's baptism, and the ablest I have met with, do grant they have no command or example in the New Testament for their practice. They ground it on a consequence, which you have heard evidently proved, is drawn from an error. For to affirm or maintain that the Covenant of Eternal Life is made with believers' carnal seed, is a dangerous error. Therefore, the consequence must needs be as false and rotten as that error from whence it is drawn. Then judge you what a pitiful consequence that must be.

Take the whole result thus, children's baptism has no ground from the Word of God, either command or example for it, but a consequence (as before). It is merely a tradition of men setting up in the place and room of the commands of God, to wit, baptizing of believers. This groundless tradition makes void the commandment of God, even as the wicked Jews did in Mark 7:7: "Howbeit, in vain saith the Lord they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and in verse 9, He said unto them, Full well you reject or frustrate the commandments of God, that you may keep your own Traditions." And in verse 13, "Make the word of God of none effect through your traditions which you have delivered, and many such things you do."

Now beloved, this is the very sin of such as defend this tradition. They, thereby, make void and frustrate the Commandment of God where Christ says, "Repent and be baptized every one of you," that is, every one who repents. Ananias says to Paul, "Arise now, why tarriest thou, and be baptized for the washing away of thy sins." Peter to Cornelius' family, he there commands them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, Acts 10:48. Those and many more standing commands of the New Testament that belong to believers and penitent persons, are frustrated and made void by christening children. Thus poor souls are nursed up in a habit of disrespect and disobedience to these commandments, because this invention takes the place and room of the same. Do but consider how dangerous a sin this practice is. It is setting up a superstitious invention in the room of God's command in his worship.

God And His Commandments Are Not To Be Separated
and An Idol Set Up In Their Place

God and His Commandments must not be separated. A soul who rightly sets up God's Commandments sets up and exalts God. To set up any worship in the room of what is commanded buyGod is in effect, to set up a false God.

Do but see what sad witness God has given from heaven against this sin in Leviticus 10:1,2. Here Nadah and Abihu offered strange fire to God, as the text says, which He commanded not. For this, God burned them with fire from heaven. The Lord does not say which He had forbidden, but which He commanded not. Many souls ask where God has forbid this practice of children's baptism? Therefore, I would prove by these Scriptures that things or persons in the worship of God, in room of what God commands, are abominable to God. Hear how God does threaten a people for this sin in Jer. 9:13-15, "And the Lord said, Because they had forsaken my Law which I had set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, nor walked therein, but have walked after the imagination of their own hearts, therefore he says in verse 15, He will give them to feed on Worm-wood, and give them Water of Gall to drink, and will consume them."

Now this is the very case of those who set up this tradition. They forsake the Law of Believer's Baptism set before them, and have never obeyed His voice nor walked therein. They have walked in children's sprinkling, which the imagination of their own hearts have devised. This text is very much applicable to such souls: the like evil wicked Saul is said to do, 1 Sam. 13:12,13, for which God rends the Kingdom from him, and in Jer. 8:9: "The wise men are dismayed and ashamed, lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them? therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them." So in Jer. 7:31, "They have built the High places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their Sons and Daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it in my heart," upon which God threatens destruction upon them.

You see how God made a breach upon Uzzah for touching the Ark which God had not commanding him, or giving him rule for such practice. God had given a command to the Priests only to do that work, but not to him.

So God has given a command and example to baptize believers only, and not children. Therefore, it is the sin of Uzzah, and likewise the sin of King Uzziah, 2 Chron. 26:14,15. Here you see the sad judgment of God upon Uzziah for doing in the worship of God, that which God had not commanded in the room or stead of what He had commanded. God struck him with leprosy, and that in his forehead. The hand of God prosecuted him as an admonition to persons who now dare adventure upon the like sinful practices to offer any thing to God as religious worship, which He has not commanded or instead of what He has commanded. The Lord, in this case, sets out Himself to be a jealous God Who will visit the sins of the father upon the children to the third and fourth generation, of such as make to themselves any graven Image, that is, any form by which we will worship God.

Be sure it is of God's own making, for we must not make it for ourselves. In Scripture, the Lord does call such like worship which men do in the room of God's commanded worship, the Worship of Devils. I shall give you one instance for this in Scripture, Psalm 106:35,36, "and they served their idols which were a snare unto them, yea they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto Devils," and in the next verse it is said, "they offered them unto the Idols of Canaan." In like manner, do not men bring their Sons and their Daughters in this case, and offer them to this invention of sprinkling.

The Testimony of Those For Believer's Baptism and Against Infant's Sprinkling

You have the commandment of Christ, the testimony of the infallible Pen-men, and all men in the world owning the Scriptures to be the Word of God, for baptizing of believers to be of the Lord's own institution. God has raised up in all ages some who have professed Religion to witness against this practice of children's sprinkling. A great part of those that have the power of godliness do renounce it as a sinful practice, and that upon substantial grounds. I think when you consider that your children's sprinkling has no command or example in the Gospel to confirm it, and only such a consequence, you will see that it flows from an error.