Part HI. Reverend Mr, Richard Baxter. i i 9 2. And why fay you it is [ In cafe the Parents diet or negleû their .Duty,] when the Parents are forbidden ( though they have Sureties with them ) fo much as to promife it as any of their Duty, or to fpeak as Promifing-Parties in it. 3. Whether this efe be Can `Uncharitable and Scandalous Inftnuation ] is all a Cafe about Matter of Faec; AndtheQoeftion is, whetherthe Author or l be the truer Historian : MyNarrative which Í hand to is this. 1. God's Law and Man's requires Parents tooffer Children to be Baptized ; and the Rubritk before Private Baptifme, forbids deferring it longer than the firft or fecond Sunday. 2. They may notbe Baptized without Godfathers as aforefaid. 3. No Parent can force any to be a Godfather against his Will. 4. Multitudes take it for a fin to be Sureties on the Terms of the Liturgy, and thereforewill and dorefute it. 5. Many Thoufandsknownot what Chriftianity, or the Baptifmal Covenant is, as we know by Perfonal Conference with our Flocks and others, where we have Iived. So common is grofs Ignorance among the Vulgar. - 6. Many of the Learned fort difputewith us frequently, that indeed Baptifm is not to Containany Covenant, or Vow at all. 7. So rare is it for Sureties to take the Child for their own, or intend to do all in. his Education which theyare to promife, that, tomy beft knowledge, I never knew one in all my life that ever ferioufyfignified to the Parents filch an Intent. But theyufifally think that they are but Witneffes, and are at molt but to give the Parents Counfel to dowhat they promife to do tbemfelves. 8. Were but all Peopletold they muff take the Child for their own, as far as this Animadverter mentionet, and folemnly beforeGod to undertake todo all that themfelves for the Child; which they Promife (bythe Book) I ferioufly pro. fefs, that I cannot fay, that ever I knew one Surety that feared God, that I had caufe tobelieve had undertaken it, unlefs thofe, that indeed took home the Child of dead Parents (or an expofed one) as their own. The Rich never intend to give away theirChildren, nor that the Sureties Educate them. And few would be Sureties for the Children of the Poor, ifthey mull take themfo for their own becanfe of the Chargeof keeping them. So that I am fully perfwaded, that were the Vow and Undertaking thus underlkood, not one of Forty, where -ever I have lived, could have anyGodfathers for their Children, unlefs they will take fach as know not what they do, or make noConfeience of it, and of whom the Parents cannot reafonably believe that they intend any fach thing. And, de jure, its plain, that it is not lawful to draw any Many, in fo great and holy a Work, to do that which he ;under/landeth not atall, and to Promife and Un- dertake that before Godand the Church,-which our Confciencestell ns, he never intendeth toperform , nordo theParents intend to raft it on him. I pars by the Difficultyof three feveralperfoas Educating the fameChild. And now confiderwhether it he a Scandalous Infisinanation, for a Man to befeech the Bithop, that his Child may not be refuted, and be Unbaptized ( and fo denyed Chriftian burial if he die ; and worfe than that,according to the Liturgy) and himfelf punifhedbecaufe he brings not Sureties ; if the Man will there profefs that he could procure no Sureties, who underftood what they are todo and ex- prefs to them any Serious Purpofe'to perform it ? Is this an Odious or Scandalous Relueft ? 4. Prop. n. 4. Of the Imageof the Croft, as ufed in.8aptifine. Stria. (m) If any think the Sign of the Crofs in (or rather'after) Baptifm, " to be a Sacramental Sign; theymay as well think fo of the fame Sign, in flags, "or ships, or banners ; for we afcribe no more efficacy to one than to the other "whereas it is the formalir ratio of a Sacrament to bea Means not only to hgnifie, "but to confer Grace non ponentibus obieem,which our Churchdoth not afcribe to this, " or any other Ceremony of Humane Infirntion ; Or that the Signof the Crofs is " any Sacramental, but a Teaching Sign only, as theSurplice is ; And inch Teach- ing Signs Mr. Baxter grants maybe lawfully appointed by the Magiftrate, and made efe of in the Service of God t though not as an Efrential part thereof. Anf. 1. You will fay ( after Baptifm :) For you make it not part of Baptifmi but a third Sacrament,as I think. L. As s
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