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conscience_n blood_n evil_a sprinkle_v 1,886 5 11.1905 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A53334 A brief defence of infant-baptism with an appendix, wherein is shewed that it is not necessary that baptism should be administred by dipping / by John Ollyffe ... Ollyffe, John, 1647-1717. 1694 (1694) Wing O287; ESTC R32212 67,029 72

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those very Benefits which are signified by Baptism are often set out by the Expression of sprinkling And if the thing signified may be sufficiently express'd in this way Cyprian Epist ad Magnum then surely it is sufficient that the Sign should be so used as to represent or express the same For the Sign is but for the sake of the thing signified Thus the Expiation of Sin by the Blood of Christ and the Communication of the Benefits of his Death is set out by Sprinkling 1 Pet. 1.2 Through Sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ And Heb. 12.24 This is that Blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel And so Heb. 10.22 we come to have our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience And the Communication of God's Grace and Assistance of his holy Spirit for the Sanctification of our Hearts and Lives is set out in the same manner Thus we have that Prophecy with respect to Gospel-times Isa 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations that is by bestowing his Word and Spirit upon them to convert and bring them to an holy Submission to himself And so Ezek. 36.25 Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you And thus we find the manner was in the Ceremonial Cleansings as in cleansing of the Levites Numb 8.7 Thus shalt thou do unto them to cleanse them sprinkle clean Water of purifying upon them And so when any one was unclean with any Ceremonial Uncleanness he was to be purified by sprinkling the Water of Separation Numb 19.13 So that it seems that all sorts of Purification or Cleansing may be sufficiently express'd by sprinkling of Water or Blood So that the Sprinkling of Water in Baptism is likewise sufficient to express or signify what is to be signified thereby It being not the Quantity but the cleansing Nature of Water that is intended in it as a Sign to the Purposes to which it is designed As in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper it is not the Quantity of Bread and Wine that is necessary to the Significancy intended therein of strengthning and refreshing our Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ but Bread and Wine used in any Quantity whatsoever So the Significancy and End of Baptism doth not depend upon the Quantity of Water used therein but only upon that Use of it whatever Quantity it be in But say our Brethren of the other Perswasion that the Significancy of Baptism is not sufficiently express'd unless according to the Apostle we are buried in Baptism under Water as they understand that Place Rom. 6.4 We are buried with him by Baptism into Death Which Place they produce both to prove the manner of Baptism by Dipping and also the Necessity of it Whereas I think that neither one nor the other can be proved from it The Apostle's Design in that Place is to engage Christians to a Forsaking or Renunciation of Sin And the Argument he useth is taken from their Baptism because they are baptized in their Baptism into the Similitude of Christ's Death and so are buried with him by Baptism into Death so as to die to Sin That as Christ died for Sin so we by our Covenant-Engagement in our Baptism undertake avowed Death to Sin evermore to renounce and forsake it and to live a new regenerate Life answerable to Christ's Resurrection And this is to be planted together with Christ in the likeness of his Death Ver. 5. and so we are to be in the likeness of his Resurrection And our old Man is crucified with him Ver. 6. that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin Ver. 11. And therefore we must reckon our selves by this our Covenant-Engagement to be dead indeed unto Sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord to live a Life of Holiness according to the Will of God So that 't is a departing from Sin which the Apostle here intends and argues from Baptism as an engaging Covenant-sign thereunto and makes use of the several Metaphors of Death and Burial and planting into Death and Crucifixion to express this departing from Iniquity to which by Baptism we are engaged But say they The Apostle alludes to the Practice or Custom of baptizing by dipping under Water But how doth that appear they must prove the Custom before they can prove that this is an Allusion to the Custom For an Allusion to a Custom supposeth it which must be made out some other way For it must first appear that that was the Custom before it can appear that this is an Allusion to it so that this Text alone doth not prove the Custom And we see that the Apostle's Discourse may be very well understood without supposing such an Allusion And yet if the Custom be owned and the Allusion be granted the Apostle's Allusion doth not prove the Necessity of it In other Scriptures we see there is an Allusion to Sprinkling yet we don't argue the Necessity of Sprinkling from such an Allusion Nor can the Necessity of Dipping be argued from this For the Force of the Apostle's Argument doth not lie in this that they were buried under Water though it be admitted they were so but that they were obliged by their Baptism as an engaging Sign to depart from Sin which they may be as well if Baptism were administred by Sprinkling so that the thing designed is equally attained this way though not under the Notion or Metaphor of Burial yet under another Notion that signifieth the same thing though not in the same manner And it is the thing it self that is to be respected and not as it is express'd under such or such a Metaphor And therefore I can never think that there should be so much Stress laid upon a Practice only for the sake of a certain Metaphor to be built upon it when the thing it self may be argued without it or under any other as well as that Thus I hope I have made out that there is no Necessity of baptizing by Dipping to be proved by Scripture And no body pretends as I know the Necessity of any other particular determinate Form Inference 1. And hence then I infer that the particular Mode or Form of Baptism is a thing indifferent as not coming under any Precept or being any way essential to the Ordinance As the Anabaptists do allow that it is indifferent whether Persons be baptized naked or in their Clothes though I think that that may fairly admit of a Dispute there being as they think no positive Rule for either So for the same Reason shall I make the like Conclusion concerning the Mode of the Administration whether by Dipping or Sprinkling 2. And then if the particular Form or Mode be indifferent then to lay such a Stress upon it as if the Worship or Ordinance could not be otherwise acceptably performed or observed can be nothing else but an unreasonable Superstition 3. And if it be indifferent then to make a Breach and Schism in the Church for the sake of it to cry down all other Baptism for a Nullity besides their own and to condemn all other Churches as no Churches and their Ordinances as no Ordinances and their Ministry as no Ministry for the sake thereof and to promote continue and carry on with so much Importunity a causless and uncharitable Separation and Division by means thereof must needs be very highly criminal I shall conclude all with the Apostle's Exhortation to the Romans Let us follow after the things that make for Peace Ch. 14.19 and things wherewith one may edify another 2 Cor. 13.11 And that to the Corinthians Finally Brethren farewel Be perfect be of one Mind live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you THE END ADVERTISEMENT THere is lately published A Survey of the Bible or an Analytical Account of the Holy Scriptures Containing the Division of every Book and Chapter thereby shewing the Frame and Contexture of the whole Much conducing to the clearer Understanding thereof By way of Supplement to the Annotations on the Bible By Samuel Clark M. A. sometime Fellow of Pembrook-Hall in Cambridge and afterwards Rector of Grendon-Vnderwood in the County of Bucks Printed for Jonathan Robinson