The minor is undeniable in the text cited : If you say, These are duties^ but not conditions; I reply, they are such duties, without the performance of which we can have no benefit by Christ and the new covenant, Luke xiv. 33. And such duties have the true suspending i\2iX.\XYe oi conditions m them. If you say they are only subsequent duties, but not antecedent or concomitant acts, the 28lh verse di- rectly opposes you : Let him first sit down and count the cost. And for those overt-acts, whereby we explicitly declare our consent to the terms of the covenant, at our first entering into the bond of it, I hope you will not say, that it is a legal covenant too ; Isa. xliv. 3, 4. " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground : I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine off-spring ; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses ; One shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob ; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord,"" &c. A plain allusion to soldiers, when they list themselves under a captain, or general.
What remains now to reply to these arguments, but either that the places by me cited and argued upon, do not intend the new cove- 7iant, under which we are ; or that this new covenant hath its condi- tions, and is not altogether absolute, as you have asserted it to be.
And thus, sir, you are fairly beaten off (if I mistake not) from the new ground you had chosen and marked out to raise your bat- tery upon, to demolish that strong fort which secures the right of behevers infants to baptism ; and you must return again to the old answers of IVIr. Tombes, and others, to our solid and substantial ar- gument from Abraham's covenant, Gen. xvii. which have been bafiled over and over by Baxter, Blake, Sydenham; and many other stout champions for hifants baptism.
?J5b A RErLY TO Un. GARY S 60LEMX CALL.
All that I am further concerned about, is to examine so many of those scriptures as you have spoken to, which are by us produced in defence of those four grounds or principles mentioned in the begin- ning of this discourse, whereon we establish the right of hifanU baptism ; and to vindicate those scriptures from your strained and injurious interpretations of them : Which being done, they will each of them stand in those eminent places of service, where they have been so long useful to the cause we defend.
As for your pretended solutions of the incomparable Mr. Baxter's, and the learned and accurate Dr. Burthogg's arguments, I admire at your confidence therein ; and let me tell you, without breach of charity, it is an high piece of confidence in you, to throw the gant- let, and bid defiance to two such worthies yet alive, and easily able to detect your folly, in the weakness and impertinency of your an- swers. Alas ! my friend, you little know what it is to have such weak and inartificial discourses as yours brought under the strict ex^ amen of such acute and judicious eyes. But,
Iiisequitur, audctque viro concurrere virgo.
Nor will I presume to anticipate either of their answers to your dis- course (if they shall think it worthy of an answer); but rather briefly reflect upon what you return to the arguments of those eminent di- vines that are gone to glory in the faith of that truth you oppose, and are not capable of defending their solid and regular interpreta- tions of scriptures, against the notions you force upon them, con- trary both to the grammar and scope of several of them.
And here sir, in the beginning, let me mind you what a learned and judicious person saith, about all interpretations of scriptures : " Four things (saith he) commend an interpretation, and establish it as a king upon the throne, against whom there is no rising up."' Firsts If the letter and grammar of the text fairly bear it. Secondly^ If the scope and argument of the place will close di- rectly with it. Thirdlij^ If the interpretation set up against it, cannot stand be- fore both, or either of the former. Fourthly, If the judgment of learned, wise, and impartial men be found generally agreeable to it.
According to these rules (whereat you can have no just exception) I shall briefly, yet I hope clearly and sufficiently, answer some of the replies you make to the arguments of those deceased worthies : And, (1.) In page 1. you produce Mr. William Allen's argument, adho- minern, against your practice : ' He tells you, your own principle condemns you ; for you reject the baptizing of infants, because there is no example in the New Testament of it ; and yet baptize persons at age, whose parents were Christians; which is as much without a gospel precedent, or example, as the former. The sum of your reply i$i That though it should be granted, that there is no express ex-
A REPLY TO MR. CARY^S SOLEMN CALL. 35t
ample for the baptizing such in scripture, yet there ar6 examples enouo-h concerning the baptism of believers,'*
Reply. Here you grant all that Mr. Allen objects ; viz. ' That you are altogether without example or precedent for your practice ; And object to him and us, what he nor we ever scrupled or denied ; viz. The baptizing of some adult persons, upon the personal profes- sion of their faith.' I have done it myself, and, in like circumstances, am ready to do it again. Once you clearly yield it, that you have no precedent nor example for your practice in the gospel : That is all that he seeks, and what he seeks, you plainly grant. As to the precept and examples of baptizing adult believers, whose parents were unbe- lievers, and themselves never baptized in infancy, that is not the point you are now to speak to ; nor have we any controversy about it. Cer- tainly you are none of the fittest persons in the world to clamour so loudly against us, for want of express precedents for infants haptismy whilst yourself confesses, you want ev?n one precedent in the New Testament to legitimate your own practice ; and in the mean time are found in the sinful neglect of a sweet and heavenly gospel-ordinance, viz. the singing o^ psalms, for which you have both precept and pre- cedent in the gospel, Col. iii. 16. Jam. v. 13. 1 Cor. xiv. 26.