ARGVMENT I.
To breake that sacred order, which God hath set in his visible Church, for all his Saints, to keepe and walke by, is a great sinne.
But to baptize infants, whose Parents are not members of any par∣ticular Congregation, is to breake that order, &c.
Therefore it is a great sinne to doe it.
The proposition is evident by these Scriptures, 1. Cor. 14.33. ult. 1. Cor. 5.13. Num. 23.9.10.11.21. and 24.5.6. 1. King. 14.1.17. Son. 6.4. The assumption is as cleare. For let it be obser∣ved, that unto all Church-actions, as there is Faith, so order also ne∣cessarily required: And hence is the difference onely, betweene Christian-communion, and Church-communion: to practise Chri∣stian-communion, there needeth nothing but visible Christianity; but to the other, as there must be visible Christianity, so likewise a fore-going joyning, of faithfull people together, in a spirituall out∣ward society, or body politike. And unlesse this thing be strictly observed, there will follow many absurdities, and great confu∣sion.
This may be further illustrated by a similitude, taken from a Corporation, to which the Church of God is sometimes compared. Wee know that many, who are no members thereof; are men, of good lives, peaceable, quiet, profitable, worthy and fit enough to be of the company: Notwithstanding they pertake not in the privi∣ledges