so what was wanting in their former estate might be supply'd by them in their following one For as it is not easie to suppose that the corruptible body should so far stupefie the Soul as to hinder it from emerging in time out of sleep in which it may seem to have been cast and accordingly from calling to mind what had been before transacted within it Because though the Body may be some hindrance to the faculties of the Soul yet it doth not hinder them from coming in time to exert their proper operations So it is much less easie to suppose that God should not however bring to it's memory its past State and Actions by which it offended against him Partly to make it sensible of its former guilt and God's choosing to punish it by thrusting it into a Body and partly to make it so much the more careful to break off from those sins by which it had before offended him These as they are the only imaginable ends why God should thrust an offending Soul into such a Body so being perfectly lost to that Soul in which there is no consciousness of it's former state and of those enormities which were contracted in it I conclude therefore that whatever may be said as to this particular concerning Original Sin yet it did not take its rise from the evil acts or habits of the Soul in any praexistent estate and nothing therefore left to us to resolve it into but the depravedness of those from whom we all descended and from whom it is transmitted to particular Souls and Persons I deny not indeed that even this Account is not without its difficulties and such as it will be hard if not impossible perfectly to assoile I deny not farther that those difficulties are much enhanc'd by the ignorance we are under concerning the Original of humane Souls and which whilst we continue under it will not be easie for us to shew how that depravedness of Nature should pass from them to us But as those difficulties are no ways comparable to the difficulties of two of the former even those which resolve Original Sin into the malignity of some evil spirit or the pravity of matter So they can much less be thought to be of force against the testimony of the Scripture if that as I shall afterwards shew favour its arising from the pravity of our first Parents Partly because the thing in question is a matter of fact and therefore to be determin'd rather by testimony than the force of reason and partly because the testimony of Scripture is the most Authentick one as being no other than the testimony of God. Now that there wants not sufficient evidence from thence that that Original Sin whereof we speak ariseth from the pravity of those from whom we first descended will appear if these three things can be made out First that the sin of all mankind enter'd in by Adam Secondly that it enter'd in by Adam not meerly as the first that committed it or tempted other Men by his ill example to do the like but as more or less the cause of all their sins by his own Thirdly that he became the cause of all their sins through his by depraving thereby his own Nature and then communicating that depravation to those that descended from him That the Sin of all Mankind enter'd in by Adam will need no other proof than that known Text of S. Paul (p) Rom. 5.12 even that by one Man sin enter'd into the World and death by sin and so death passed through unto all Men for that all have sinned For as we cannot well interpret the word sin of any other than the sin of all Men because there is nothing in the Text to limit it to any particular Man's so much less when S. Paul doth afterwards affirm that that death which enter'd in by it passed thorough unto all Men for that or because all had sinned by the means of him That as it makes death to pass upon all Men with respect to their several sins and consequently their several sins to be the immediate door by which it enters so making those several sins therefore to be included in that sin which he before affirmed to be the cause of that death and together with it to have enter'd in by Adam But because among those at least by whom the Scripture is acknowledg'd the question is not so much whether all sin enter'd by Adam but after what manner it enter'd by him And because till that be known we cannot speak with any certainty concerning the derivation of the corruptness of our Natures from that of our first Parents or Parent Therefore pass we on to shew according to the method before laid down that as the sin of all Mankind enter'd in by Adam so it enter'd in by him not as some have vainly deem'd meerly as one who first committed it or tempted others by his example to do the like but as one also yea especially who by the malignant influence of his sin was more or less the cause of all those sins that followed it That the sin of all Mankind enter'd not in by Adam either meerly or principally as one who first committed it will need no other proof than his being not the first committer of sin even in this sublunary World but that Serpent who tempted our first Parents to it For as he and his fellow Angels sinned before them in those glorious seats in which they were first bestow'd So he sinned also before them here by that temptation which he suggested to them and without which they had not fallen from their integrity Which as it is an evidence of sin 's not entring in by Adam in that sense and consequently that that was not the sense intended by S. Paul So is the more to be considered because S. John attributes this entrance of sin to the Devil (q) 1 Joh. 3.8 yea makes all the committers of sin to be therefore of him But besides that Adam was not the first of those that sinned and we therefore not so to understand S. Paul when describing sin as entring by him Neither was he the first of humane kind that sinned which will be a yet farther prejudice to the former surmise For as we learn from the story of the Fall (r) Gen. 3.6 yea from this very Apostle elsewhere (Å¿) 1 Tim. 2.14 Adam was not deceiv'd that is to say was not the first that was so but the Woman being deceiv'd was in the transgression Which what is it but to say that sin did not enter in by Adam in that sense and consequently that that was not the sense intended by the Apostle in it Only if it be said and more than that cannot be said in it that we are not so to understand S. Paul when describing sin as entring by Adam as not also to suppose him to connote the Partner both of his Bed and of his transgression As I
acknowledgments of the wiser Heathen Enquiry next made from whence it had its beginning which is shewn to have been not from any evil Spirit or Daemon the pravity of matter or the evil habits the Soul contracted in a praeexistent state but from the pravity of our first Parents This last at large confirm'd out of the Doctrine of the Scripture and followed by some light reflections upon the means by which it is conveyed A more just account from the Scripture of its being truly and properly a sin partly from its having the title of a sin but more especially from its being represented as such upon the account of our Obligation to the contrary A consideration of those Objections which are commonly made against the Doctrine of Original Sin Which are shewn either not to be of that force whereof they are esteem'd or however not to be a sufficient bar to what the Scripture hath declar'd concerning it AN account being thus given of the outward visible Sign of Baptism Question What is the inward and spiritual Grace which is the first of those things I proposed to entreat of Reason would Answer A death unto Sin and a new birth unto Righteousness For being by nature born in Sin and the Children of wrath we are hereby made the Children of Grace as well as the method before laid down that I should consider the things signified by it Which on the part of God and Christ are an inward and Spiritual Grace as on the part of the baptized an Abrenunciation of their former sins and a resolution to believe and act as Christianity obligeth them to do But because both the one and the other of these suppose the baptized persons to have been before in a sinful Estate and our Catechism in particular to have been born in it and by that as well as by the sins they afterward contracted to be made the Children of wrath Therefore it will be but necessary for us to premise something concerning that sinful Estate as which Baptism both presupposeth and professeth to provide a remedy for Now as that sinful State whereof we speak is best known by the name of Original Sin and will therefore most commodiously be described by it So I will make it my business to enquire What that is and what appearance of the being of it from whence it had its beginning and by what means it is conveyed whether as it hath for the most part the name of a Sin so it be truly and properly such and what is to be said to the Objections that are made against it I. To begin with the first of these even what Original Sin is and which in the general may be defin'd to be such a Corruption of the nature of every Man that is naturally ingendred of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclin'd to every thing that is evil I call it a Corruption of nature to distinguish it from nature considered in it self and as it was in the first formation of it Partly because Nature being as such the work of God cannot be supposed to be corrupt And partly because the Scripture assures us that whatsoever it now is God made it upright * Eccl. 7.29 and so free from all corruptions whatsoever But so also do I entitle it the Corruption of the Nature of every Man that is naturally ingendred of the off-spring of Adam Partly because the Scripture where it entreats of it represents all Men as under the Contagion of it and partly to exempt our Lord and Saviour from it who was ingendred after another manner and whom the same Scripture assures to have been free †2 Cor. 5.21 from all sin yea to have been so * Luk. 1.35 from his Birth I call it lastly such a Corruption of humane Nature whereby it is averse from every thing that is good and inclin'd to every thing that is evil Which I do upon the account of the Scripture's representing it as a sinful (a) Psa 51.5 one and which as such will make those in whom it is averse from good as well as inclinable to evil yea averse from all that is good and inclinable to all evil Because good yea all good is opposite to such an estate and evil yea all evil connatural to it If they in whom that corruption of nature doth as yet abide be not always actually prevail'd upon to reject that good from which we have affirm'd them to be so averse or to pursue that evil to which we have affirm'd them to be inclinable it is not because they want any averseness for the one or inclination to the other but for some other collateral considerations Such as is for example the reputation or advantage that may accrue to them from the espousing of any thing that is good or the omission of any thing that is evil For all good and all evil being of one uniform nature because becoming good or evil by the conformity they bear to the divine Laws or by their deviation from them where there is an inclination to any thing that is good there must be an inclination to all that is of the same nature as on the other side where an averseness from any thing that is evil an averseness for all that which is alike a transgression of the Divine Laws But as therefore nothing can hinder us from representing natural corruption as making Men averse from all that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil So neither can any thing oblige us to extend the force of it so far as to make it to determine them in all their actions and accordingly to carry them to an actual rejection of all that is good or a pursuance of all that is evil Partly because Men may and often do act contrary to their natural aversions or inclinations where there is hope of temporal advantage or fear of any temporal evil And partly because we do not only find few natural Men proceeding to the extremity of Impiety but find also great variety among them in the omission of good Actions or the commission of those that are evil Of which variety what account could be given when the Corruption of Nature is and must be equal because all Men were alike in and are alike descended from Adam were it not that even that Corruption leaves place for the performance of many good and the avoiding of many things that are evil For to ascribe that variety either wholly or principally to the different degrees of God's restraining Grace is not only to speak without all Authority that I know of but to take away all diversity between the evil demerits of natural Men and together therewith all different degrees of punishment yea to make the Corruption of Nature the only proper ground of punishment For as if there be nothing but God's restraining Grace to take off natural Men from falling into the
Head than that that Law which requires a pious and innocent temper was given to Adam in that capacity But as we can as little doubt of that if his contracting a contrary temper was as fatal to his Posterity as to himself So that it was will need no other proof than his producing the like temper in them and that temper 's proving as deadly to them The former whereof is evident from what I before said to shew that Original Sin had its beginning from Adam the latter from S. Paul's (p) Rom. 7.24 calling it a Body of Death or a Body that brings it The Genitive Case (q) Grot. iâ— loc among the Hebrews and Hellenists being usually set for such Adjectives as betoken a causality in them Even as the Savour of Death is us'd for a deadly one or that which bringeth death and the Tree of Life for a life-giving one or that which was apt to produce or continue it I deny not indeed that I may now pass to those Exceptions that are commonly made against it that it may seem hard to conceive how Adam should be set in such a capacity as to involve all mankind in happipiness or misery according as he either continued in or fell from that integrity wherein God created him I deny not therefore but that it is equally hard to conceive how God should give him such a Law the observation or transgression whereof on his part should redound to the account of his Posterity But as every thing that is hard to be conceiv'd is not therefore to be deny'd if it be otherwise strengthen'd with sufficient proofs So it would be consider'd also whether it be not much more hard to conceive how God should otherwise involve Infants and Children in those calamities into which they often fall especially in National Judgments It being certainly more agreeable to the divine Justice to conceive those to have some way or other offended and consequently thereto to have fallen under the displeasure of it than to conceive them to suffer it without any offence at all For why then should we not think especially when the Scripture hath led the way that God oblig'd them in Adam to a pious and innocent temper and which they losing in him they became obnoxious with him to the same sad effects of his displeasure And though it be true that there is this great imparity between the cases that the effect of God's displeasure upon occasion of Original Sin is made to reach to eternal misery as well as to a temporal one whereas the case we before instanc'd in concerns only a temporal punishment Yet as they do thus far agree that a punishment is inflicted where there is no actual sin to deserve it which is sufficiently irreconcileable with the understanding we otherwise have of the divine Justice So that great imparity may be much abated by considering that God hath provided a Plaster as large as the Sore even by giving his Son to dye for all Mankind and appointed the Sacrament of Baptism to convey the benefit of it For as the consequents of Original Sin will be thereby taken off from so many Infants at least as are admitted to that Sacrament so that mercy of his to those and the assurance we have from the Scripture of his giving his Son to dye for all may perswade us to believe that though he hath not reveal'd the particular way to us yet he hath some other way to convey the benefit of that death to those who are not admitted to the other But it will be said it may be which is a no less prejudice against the being of Original Sin that all sin to make it truly such must have the consent of the will of those in whom it is as well as be the transgression of a Law. A thing by no means to be affirm'd concerning that which we call Original Sin because not only contracted before we had a being and therefore also before we had so much as the faculty of willing but moreover conveyed to us when we had neither reason to apprehend it nor any power in our wills either to admit or reject it And indeed how altogether to take off the force of that Objection is beyond my capacity to apprehend or satisfie the understandings of other Men Because as I cannot see how any thing can be a sin which hath not also the consent of the will of those in whom it is so I am as little able to conceive how Original Sin should have the consent of ours either when it was first contracted or when it was transmitted to us But as I am far less able to conceive how Infants and Children should come to be so severely dealt with without any offence at all or therefore without having some way or other consented to one So I think first that that difficulty may well be laid in the ballance against the other yea alledged as a bar to the supposed force of it For why should my inability to apprehend how Infants and Children could consent to Original Sin prevail with me to deny the being of it when a far greater inability to apprehend how the same persons should come to be so severely dealt withal without it doth not prevail with me to deny that severe usage of them Neither will it avail to say which is otherwise considerable enough that we have for the belief of this last the testimony of our senses which is not to be alledged as to the other For the question is not now whether the severe usage of Infants and Children may not more reasonably be believ'd than their Original Sin upon the account of the greater evidence there may be of it But whether we can any more deny the Original Sin of Infants and Children upon the account of our inability to apprehend how they should consent unto it than we can deny the severe usage of the same persons upon the account of our inability to apprehend how they should come to be so dealt with without the other Which that we cannot is evident from hence that we are equally at a loss in our apprehensions about the one and the other that I say not also more at a loss about the latter than about the former And indeed as we find it necessary to believe many things notwithstanding our inability to apprehend how they should come to pass and ought not therefore to deny the being of any one thing upon the sole account of that inability So our apprehensions are so short as to the modes of those things of the being whereof we are most assured that it will hardly be deemed reasonable to insist upon the suggestions of them against the affirmations of the Scripture Partly because of the Authority of him from whom it proceeded and partly because we cannot so easily fail in our apprehension concerning the due sense of the affirmations of it as in the deductions of our own reason concerning
the body of sin crucified with him For shall we say that S. Paul meant no more by all this than that the design of Baptism and the several parts of it was to represent to us the necessity of our dying and being buried as to sin and that accordingly all that are baptized into Christ make profession of their resolution so to do but not that they are indeed buried by Baptism as to that particular But beside that we are not lightly to depart from the propriety of the Scripture phrase which must be acknowledg'd rather to favour a real death than the bare signification of it That Apostle doth moreover affirm those whom he before describ'd as dead to be freed (d) Rom. 7.18 from sin yea so far (e) Rom. 7.18 as to have passed over into another service even that of righteousness and to have obeyed from the heart (f) Rom. 7.17 that form of Doctrine into which they had been delivered Which suppos'd as it may because the direct affirmation of S. Paul will make that death whereof we speak to be a death in reality as well as in figure and accordingly because Men are affirmed to be baptized into it shew that Baptism to be a means of conveying it as well as a representation of it Agreeable hereto or rather yet more express is that of the same Apostle to the Colossians (g) Col. 2.11 though varying a little from the other as to the manner of expression For having affirmed them through Christ to have put off the body of the sins of the flesh by a circumcision not made with hands and consequently by a spiritual one he yet adds lest any should fancy that spiritual Circumcision to accrue to them without some ceremonial one in the Circumcision of Christ even that Baptism which conformably to the circumcision of the Jews he had appointed for their entrance into his Religion by and wherein he accordingly affirms as he did in the former place that they were not only buried with him but had risen together with him by the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead From whence as it is clear that the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh which is but another expression for a death unto them is though accomplished by a spiritual Grace yet by such a one as is conveyed to us by Baptism so it becomes yet more clear by what he adds concerning Men's rising with him in the same Baptism even to a life contrary to what they had before deposited through the faith of the operation of God. For as we cannot conceive of that rising with Christ as other than a real one because there would not otherwise have needed such a faith as that to bring it about So neither therefore but think the like of that death which it presupposeth and consequently that that Baptism to which it is annex'd is a means of conveying it as well as a representation of it But so we may be yet more convinc'd by such Texts of Scripture as speak of this death unto sin under the notion of a cleansing from it Of which nature is that so often alledged one (h) Eph. 5.26 27. concerning Christ's sanctifying and cleansing his Church with the washing of water by the word For as it appears from what is afterwards subjoyn'd as the end of that cleansing even that the Church might not have any spot or wrinkle but that it should be holy and without blemish As it appears I say from thence that the Apostle speaks in the verse before concerning a cleansing from the filth of sin which is but another expression for the putting off the body of sin or a death unto it So it appears in like manner from S. Paul's attributing that cleansing to the washing of water that the outward sign of Baptism is by the appointment and provision of God a means of conveying that spiritual Grace by which that cleansing is more immediately effected and that death unto sin procur'd From that death unto sin therefore pass we to our new birth unto righteousness that other inward and spiritual Grace of Baptism and the complement of the former A Grace of whose conveyance by Baptism we can much less doubt if we consider the language of the Scripture concerning it or the Doctrine as well as practice of the Church The opinion the Jews had of that which seems to have been its type and exemplar or the expressions even of the Heathen concerning it For what less can the Scripture be thought to mean when it affirms us to be born of the water (i) Joh. 3.5 of it as well as of the spirit yea so as to be as truly spirit (k) Joh. 3.6 as that which is born of the flesh is flesh What less can it be thought to mean when it entitles it the laver of (l) Tit. 3.5 Regeneration and which is more affirms us to be saved by it as well as by the renewing of the Holy Ghost What less when it requires us to look upon our selves as alive (m) Rom. 6.11 unto God by it as well as buried (n) Rom. 6.4 by it into the former death or as the same Apostle elsewhere expresseth it as risen with Christ in it (o) Col. 2.12 through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead In fine what less when it affirms us to be sanctified with the washing (p) Eph. 5.26 of it as well as it elsewhere doth by the influences of God's Spirit For these expressions shew plainly enough that Baptism hath its share in the producing of this new birth as well as the efficacy of God's Spirit And consequently that it is at least the conveyer of that Grace by which it is more immediately produc'd And indeed as if men would come without prejudice they would soon see enough in those expressions to convince them of as much as I have deduced from them So they might see yet more if they pass'd so far in the doctrine and language of the Church to confirm them in that Interpretation of them For who ever even of the first and purest times spake in a lower strain concerning Baptism who ever made less of it than of a means by which we are regenerated I appeal for a proof hereof to their so unanimously (q) See Part 2. understanding of Baptism what our Saviour spake to Nicodemus concerning the necessity of men's being born again of water and of the spirit For as all men whatsoever interpret that of our new birth unto righteousness and so far as the spirit of God is concerned in it of the means by which it is produc'd So they must therefore believe that if the Antients understood it of Baptism they allotted that its share in it and consequently made it at least a conveyer of that Grace by which this new birth is produc'd I appeal farther to the particular declarations of
the Nature of every Man that is naturally engendered of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil The nature of that corruption more particularly enquir'd into and shewn by probable Arguments to be no other than a Privation of a Supernatural Grace That there is such a thing as we have before described evidenced at large from the Scripture and that evidence farther strengthned by the experience we have of its effects and the acknowledgments of the wiser Heathen Enquiry next made from whence it had its beginning which is shewn to have been not from any evil Spirit or Daemon the pravity of matter or the evil habits the Soul contracted in a praeexistent state but from the pravity of our first Parents This last at large confirm'd out of the Doctrine of the Scripture and followed by some light reflections upon the means by which it is conveyed A more just account from the Scripture of its being truly and properly a sin partly from its having the title of a sin but more especially from its being represented as such upon the account of our Obligation to the contrary A consideration of those Objections which are commonly made against the Doctrine of Original Sin Which are shewn either not to be of that force whereof they are esteem'd or however not to be a sufficient bar to what the Scripture hath declar'd concerning it p. 89 The Contents of the Fourth Part. Of the things signified by Baptism on the part of God or its inward and spiritual Grace THE things signified by Baptism are either more general or particular More general as that Covenant of Grace which passeth between God and Man and that body of Men which enter into Covenant with him More particular what the same God doth by vertue of that Covenant oblige himself to bestow upon the Baptized and what those Baptized ones do on their part undertake to perform These latter ones proposed to be considered and entrance made with the consideration of what God obligeth himself to bestow upon the Baptized called by the Church An inward and spiritual Grace Which inward and spiritual Grace is shewn to be of two sorts to wit such as tend more immediately to our spiritual and eternal welfare or such as only qualifie us for those Graces that do so To the former sort are reckon'd that inward and spiritual Grace which tends to free us from the guilt of sin called by the Church forgiveness of sin That which tends to free us from the pollution of sin called by our Catechism A death unto it And that which tends to introduce the contrary purity and hath the name of a New birth unto righteousness To the latter sort is reckoned our union to that Body of which Christ Jesus is the Head and by means whereof he dispenseth the former Graces to us Each of these resum'd and considered in their order and shewn to be what they are usually stil'd the inward and spiritual Graces of Baptism or the things signified by the outward visible Sign thereof p. 185 The Contents of the Fifth Part. Of Forgiveness of sin by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to its inward and spiritual Grace and particularly to Forgiveness of sin Which is either that of a means fitted by God to convey it or of a pledge to assure the Baptized person of it The former of these relations more particularly considered as that too with respect to Forgiveness of Sin in the general or the Forgiveness of all Sin whatsoever and Original Sin in particular As to the former whereof is alledged first the Scriptures calling upon Men to be Baptiz'd for the remission or forgiveness of sin Secondly the Church's making that Forgiveness a part of her Belief and Doctrine Thirdly the agreeing opinions or practices of those who were either unsound members of it or Separatists from it And Fourthly the Calumnies of its enemies The like evidence made of the latter from the Scripture's proposing Baptism and its Forgiveness as a remedy against the greatest guilts and in special against that wrath which we are Children of by Nature From the premises is shewn that the sign of Baptism is a pledge to assure the Baptized of Forgiveness as well as a means fitted by God for the conveying of it p. 203 The Contents of the Sixth Part. Of Mortification of sin and Regeneration by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to such inward and spiritual Graces as tend to free us from the pollution of sin or introduce the contrary purity And that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby they are convey'd This evidenced as to the former even our death unto sin which is also explain'd from such Texts of Scripture as make mention of our being baptiz'd into it and buried by Baptism in it or from such as describe us as cleansed by the washing of it The like evidenc'd from the same Scripture concerning the latter even our new birth unto righteousness As that again farther clear'd as to this particular by the consentient Doctrine and practice of the Church by the opinion the Jews had of that Baptism which was a Type and exemplar of ours and the expressions of the Heathen concerning it The Doctrine of the Church more largely insisted upon and exemplified from Justin Martyr Tertullian and S. Cyprian p. 217 The Contents of the Seventh Part. Of our Union to the Church by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to our Vnion to the Church and that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby that Vnion is made This evidenc'd in the first place from the declarations of the Scripture more particularly from its affirming all Christians to be baptiz'd into that Body as those who were first baptiz'd after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles to have been thereby added to their company and made partakers with the rest in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship in breaking of Bread and in Prayers The like evidence of the same Union to the Church by Baptism from the declarations of the Church it self and the consequences of that Vnion shewn to be such as to make that also to be accounted one of the inward and spiritual Graces of that Baptism by which it is made p. 237 The Contents of the Eighth Part. Of the Profession that is made by the Baptized Person THE things signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized brought under consideration and shewn from several former discourses which are also pointed to to be an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and particularly of the Trinity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws Our resolution of acting agreeably to the Laws of Christianity more particularly consider'd and the Profession thereof shewn by several
which was apply'd to new-born Infants and to represent alike washing away of natural pollutions One other particular there is wherein I have said the Water of Baptism to have been intended as a sign and that is in respect of that manner of application which was sometime us'd I mean the dipping or plunging the party baptized in it A signification which S. Paul will not suffer those to forget who have been acquainted with his Epistles For with reference to that manner of Baptizing we find him affirming (m) Rom. 6.4 that we are buried with Christ by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life And again (n) Rom. 6.5 that if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection To the same purpose or rather yet more clearly doth that Apostle discourse where he tells us (o) Col. 2.12 that as we are buried with Christ in Baptism so we do therein rise also with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the Dead For what is this but to say that as the design of Baptism was to oblige Men to conform so far to Christ's Death and Resurrection as to die unto Sin and live again unto Righteousness so it was perform'd by the ceremony of immersion that the person immersd might by that very ceremony which was no obscure image of a Sepulture be minded of the preceden death as in like manner by his comming again out of the Water of his rising from that death to life after the example of the Instituter thereof For which cause as hath been elsewhere (p) Expl. of the Creed in the words Aud Buried observ'd the Antient Church added to the Rite of immersion the dipping of the party three several times to represent the three days Christ continued in the Grave for that we find to have been the intention of some and made the Eve of Easter one of the solemn times of the Administration of it 3. The third thing to be enquir'd concerning the outward visible sign of Baptism is how it ought to be apply'd where again these two things would be considered First whether it ought to be applyed by an immersion or by that or an aspersion or effusion Secondly whether it ought to be applyed by a threefold immersion or aspersion answerably to the names into which we are baptiz'd or either by that or a single one The former of these is it may be a more material question than it is commonly deem'd by us who have been accustomed to baptize by a bare effusion or sprinkling of water upon the party For in things which depend for their force upon the meer will and pleasure of him who instituted them there ought no doubt great regard to be had to the commands of him who did so As without which there is no reason to presume we shall receive the benefit of that ceremony to which he hath been pleased to annex it Now what the command of Christ was in this particular cannot well be doubted of by those who shall consider first the words of Christ (q) Matt. 28. â—9 concerning it and the practice of those times whether in the Baptism of John or of our Saviour For the words of Christ are that they should Baptize or Dip those whom they made Disciples to him for so no doubt the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies and which is more and not without its weight that they should baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Thereby intimating such a washing as should receive the party baptized within the very body of that Water which they were to baptize him with Though if there could be any doubt concerning the signification of the words in themselves yet would that doubt be remov'd by considering the practice of those times whether in the Baptism of John or of our Saviour For such as was the practice of those times in Baptizing such in reason are we to think our Saviour's command to have been concerning it especially when the words themselves incline that way There being not otherwise any means either for those or future times to discover his intention concerning it Now what the practice of those times was as to this particular will need no other proof than their resorting to Rivers and other such like receptacles of waters for the performance of that ceremony as that too because there was much Water there For so the Scripture doth not only affirm concerning the Baptism of John (r) Matt. 3.5 6.13 John 3.23 but both intimate concerning that which our Saviour administred in Judaea because making John's Baptism and his to be so far forth of the same sort (Å¿) Joh. 3.22 23. and expresly affirm concerning the Baptism of the Eunuch which is the only Christian Baptism the Scripture is any thing particular in the description of The words of S. Luke (t) Act. 8.38 being that both Philip and the Eunuch went down into a certain water which they met with in their journey in order to the baptizing of the latter For what need would there have been either of the Baptist's resorting to great confluxes of Water or of Philip and the Eunuch's going down into this were it not that the Baptism both of the one and the other was to be performed by an immersion A very little Water as we know it doth with us sufficing for an effusion or sprinkling But beside the words of our Blessed Saviour and the concurrent practice of those times wherein this Sacrament was instituted It is in my opinion of no less consideration that the thing signified by the Sacrament of Baptism cannot otherwise be well represented than by an immersion or at least by some more general way of purification than that of effusion or sprinkling For though the pouring or sprinkling of a little Water upon the Face may suffice to represent an internal washing which seems to be the general end of Christ's making use of the Sacrament of Baptism yet can it not be thought to represent such an entire washing as that of new-born Infants was and as Baptism may seem to have been intended for because represented as the laver (u) Tit. 3.5 of our regeneration That though it do require an immersion yet requiring such a general washing at least as may extend to the whole Body As other than which cannot answer its type nor yet that general though internal purgation which Baptism was intended to represent The same is to be said yet more upon the account of our conforming to the Death and Resurrection of Christ which we learn from S. Paul to have been the design of Baptism to signifie For though that might and was well enough represented by the baptized persons being
it a law of sin The latter where he represents that carnality and sinful captivity under which the Jew was as the cause of his doing what he would not (t) Rom. 15. and omitting what he would That sin which dwelt in him as doing all the evil (u) Rom. 17.20 he committed And that law that was in his members as warring against the law of his mind (w) Rom. 23. and bringing him into Captivity unto the law of sin For what more could be said on the one hand to shew the thing S. Paul there speaks of to be an inward evil principle and which because even in those who were under the Law is much more to be supposed in the Gentiles Or what more on the other to shew that evil principle to be the parent of our actual sins yea that which gives being to them all And I know nothing to take off the force of it but a supposition of St. Paul's speaking in that place of Evil habits and which as they must be confessed to be of the same pernicious efficacy with Original Corruption so to have been for the most part the condition both of Jew and Gentile before they came to be overtaken by the Gospel But how first supposing the Apostle to have spoken only of evil habits for nothing hinders us from assigning them a part in that Body of sin How first I say doth that agree with the account he before gave concerning sins entring in (x) Rom. 5.12 by Adam and our being constituted (y) Rom. 19. sinners by him For though Original Corruption may come from him yet evil habits can be only from our selves and consequently those sins that flow from them How secondly supposing none but evil habits to be here intended can we make that Body or law of sin whereof S. Paul speaks to be the portion of all that are under an obligation to Baptism as that Apostle plainly supposeth when he makes the design of Baptism (z) Rom. 6.6 to be the destruction of it For to say nothing at present concerning the case of Infants because the best evidence of their Obligation to Baptism is the Corruption of their Nature and that Obligation therefore rather to be prov'd from Natural Corruption than Natural Corruption from it Neither can it be deny'd even from the Commandment * Mat. 28.19 that our Saviour gave concerning Baptism that all adult persons are under an Obligation to it nor therefore but that they carry about them that body of sin which Baptism was intended for the destruction of But so all adult persons cannot be supposed to do if that body of sin be no other than evil habits Because it must be sometime after that maturity of theirs before they can come to those evil habits or therefore to be under an Obligation to that Sacrament which is to destroy it In fine how supposing none but evil habits to be intended by that body or law of sin whereof the Apostle speaks can we give an account of so holy and just a Law as that of Moses is stirring †Rom. 7.9 Concupiscence in those that are under it and not rather hindring it from coming to effect For as nothing hinders the proposing of that Law before such persons come to any evil habits and therefore also before there is any thing in them to stir them up to such a Concupiscence So nothing can hinder that Law when duly proposed to them from preventing all such Concupiscence as it was the design of the Lawgiver to forbid Because as the persons we speak of must be supposed to be without any contrariety in their Nature to the matter of that Law which is propos'd So they must also be suppos'd to be in that state wherein God had set them and because God cannot be thought to place Men in any other estate than that of uprightness in such a state as will make them willing to listen to the divine Laws and receive their directions from them By which means the divine Laws shall rather keep Men's Concupiscence from coming to effect than give any occasion for the stirring of it I conclude therefore from that as well as the former arguments that the evil principle spoken of by S. Paul cannot be evil habits and consequently nothing more left to us to demonstrate than that it is derived to us from our Birth or rather from our Conception in the Womb which is all that is affirmed concerning Original Corruption Now that that evil principle whereof we speak is derived to us from our Birth will become at least probable from what was before said concerning the earliness of Men's being under sin yea their being so as the Scripture instructs us even from their Youth For as it is hard to believe that all Men should be so early under sin if it were not from some inward principle that was antecedent to that Age For what should otherwise hinder some of them at least from preserving their integrity for some time especially supposing as that tender Age maketh it reasonable to suppose a more peculiar watchfulness of the Divine Providence over it So it will be much more hard to believe supposing that evil principle to be antecedent to their Youth that it should not be derived to them from their Conception and Birth The Ages preceding that being not in a capacity to produce in themselves such an evil principle and therefore to be suppos'd to have had it transmitted to them together with their Nature and so also by the same means and from the same time in which that their Nature was And indeed as even the tenderest age falls under death and not unreasonably therefore concluded to be some way or other under sin if as S. Paul †Rom. 5.12 speaks death enter'd by it and so pass'd upon all Men for that all have sinned So there want not some places of Scripture which do yet more directly evince that the first beginnings of our Nature are tainted with that of which we speak Of this sort I reckon that of Job (a) Job 14.4 which is so commonly apply'd to this affair even his demanding of God with reference to himself (b) Job 1 c. and all other Men who could bring a clean thing out of an unclean and thereby therefore intimating that it was not to be done For as it is manifest from his alledging that the better to countenance his own expostulation concerning God's bringing him into judgment that by the unavoidable uncleanness there intimated must be meant a sinful one as which alone could either dispose him to such actions as could be a proper matter for judgment or be alledged in bar to a severe one So it is alike manifest from Job's asking who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean that Men are not only so unclean in their Nature but that they become so by those evil principles out of which they are brought and so
may be yea be assur'd to us of the original or conveyance whereof we our selves are perfectly ignorant for who doubts of the being of humane Souls though he neither knows nor well can whether they be traduc'd or infus'd and partly because the testimony of Scripture with the experience we have of its effects is a much more forcible argument of the being of it than all the former reasons are of the other These being direct and immediate proofs of its existence whereas the other are only indirect and mediate From such objections therefore as consider Original Sin as a simple Corruption of humane Nature pass we to those which consider it also as sinful and which indeed seem most hardly to press upon it Such as are that all sin is the transgression of a Law which Original Sin seems not to be That it requires the consent of the will of him in whom it is which cannot well be affirm'd of that As in fine that the Scripture it self may seem to make that which we call Original Sin rather the Parent of Sin than sin it self because making sin to arise (o) James 1 13 c. from the conception and parturition of it As to what is objected from the forementioned Scripture it is either nothing at all to the purpose or very much against the purpose of those that alledge it Partly because by the sin there spoken of can be meant no other than actual sin and nothing therefore to be concluded from thence but that all actual sin is the product of Men's Lust and partly because that Text makes even actual sins to be the product of Men's Lust yea of such a lust as draweth them aside and enticeth them For who can well think the Parent of such Children to be of a better Nature than the Children themselves especially when she is described as giving birth to them by false and deceitful Arts Such Arts as those reflecting no great honour upon the Mother but on the contrary making her to be altogether as criminal as the other If therefore they who impugn Original Sin as such would do it with any advantage it must not be by Arguments drawn from Scripture which will rather hurt than profit them but by Arguments drawn from reason and particularly by such as represent Original Sin as no transgression of a Law and therefore no sin properly so call'd or as a thing which hath not the consent of the will of him in whom it is and therefore yet farther removed from it As concerning the former of these even that which represents Original Sin as no transgression of a Law I answer that they who so speak must deny it to be such either because it is no Act or because there is no Law which it can be suppos'd to be a transgression of If the former of these be their meaning I willingly grant what they alledge but I say withall that it will not from thence follow that it is no sin at all For if Men are obliged by the divine Law to a pious and innocent temper as well as not to swerve from it in their actions the want of that happy temper or the having a contrary one will be as much the transgression of a Law as the want of the same piety in their actions Which will consequently devolve the whole force of that Objection upon the supposition of there being no such Law of God which requires the former temper or which therefore Original Sin can be thought to be a transgression of But as I have already made it appear in some measure that there is in truth such a Law as requires a pious and innocent temper so I shall now endeavour to strengthen it by some more particular proofs and by answering those exceptions that are made against it In order to the former whereof we are to know that as the Law we speak of must be supposed to have been given to Adam as that too not only in his private but publick capacity and as he may be thought to have been the representative of all Mankind there being no other Law which can be suppos'd to concern us before we come to be in a capacity to apprehend and obey it so I shall endeavour to make it appear first that there was such a Law given to Adam and then that it was given to him not only in his private but publick capacity and as he may be thought to have been the representative of all Mankind Now that there was a Law given to Adam requiring a pious and innocent temper as well as the preserving that piety and innocency in his actions will need no other proof than God's creating him in it and the love he may be supposed to bear unto it For as we cannot think God would have ever intrusted such a Jewel with Adam if it had not been his intention that he should preserve and exercise it so much less when the holiness of the divine Nature persuades his love to it as well as the declarations of his word For what were this but to make God indifferent what became of his most excellent gifts which no wise person and much less so hearty a lover of them can be supposed to be If therefore there can be any doubt concerning the Law we speak of it must be as to its having been given to Adam in his publick capacity and as he may be suppos'd to have been the representative of all Mankind Which I shall endeavour to evince first by shewing what I mean by his publick capacity secondly by shewing that Adam was set in such a capacity and thirdly that the Law we speak of was given to him as considered in it By the publick capacity of Adam I mean such a one whereby as he was design'd to be the Father of all Mankind so God made him a kind of Trustee for it In order thereunto both giving him what he did for their benefit as well as his own and obliging him for their sakes as well as his own to see to the preservation of it and act agreeably to it Which if he did his Posterity as well as himself should have the benefit thereof and God's favour together with it but if not forfeit together with him what God had so bestow'd upon him and incurr the penalty of his displeasure Now that Adam was set in such a capacity which is the second thing to be demonstrated will appear from the Scriptures making him the cause of all Men's death by his offence and disobedience For the effects of another disobedience being not otherwise chargeable upon any Man than as that other may be suppos'd to be appointed to act for him If the effects of Adam's disobedience were to fall upon all his Posterity he also must be supposed to have been appointed to act for them and consequently to have been set in that publick capacity whereof I speak Which will leave nothing more for us to shew upon this
the things affirmed Nothing more being required to the understanding of the one than a due consideration of the signification of the words wherein they are expressed whereas to the right ordering of the other there is requir'd a due understanding of the Nature of those things about which we reason which is both a matter of far greater difficulty and in many cases impossible to be attain'd Whatever difficulty therefore there may be in apprehending how Original Sin could have the consent of those in whom it is supposed to be and consequently how it should be truly and properly a sin Yet ought not that to be a bar against our belief of it if the Scripture hath represented it as such and which whether it hath or no I shall leave to be judg'd by what I have before observ'd from it From such Objections as are level'd more immediately against the being of Original Sin pass we to those which impugne the derivation of it from Adam and from whom we have affirmed it to proceed Which Objections again do either tend to shew that it had its Original from something else or that it cannot be suppos'd to have its Original from Adam An opinion hath prevail'd of late years that that which we call Original Sin took its rise from the sins of particular Souls in some praexistent estate and from those evil habits which they contracted by them And certainly the opinion were reasonable enough to be embrac'd if the praexistence of Souls were but as well prov'd as it is speciously contriv'd For that suppos'd it would be no hard matter to give an account of the rise of that Corruption which is in us nor yet of God's afflicting those on whom no other blame appears That corruption as it is no other than what particular Souls have themselves contracted so making them as obnoxious to the vengeance of God as any after sins can be supposed to do But do they who advance this hypothesis think the plausibleness thereof a sufficient ground to build it on Or are problems in Divinity no other way to be determin'd than those of Astronomy or other such conjectural Arts are I had thought that for the resolution of these we ought rather to have had recourse to that word of God which was design'd to give us an understanding of them to have examin'd the several assertions of it and acquiesced in them how difficult soever to be apprehended I had thought that we ought to have done so much more where the Scripture professeth to deliver its opinion and doth not only not wave the thing in question but speaks to it Which that it doth in the present case will need no other proof than the account it gives of the Original of Mankind and then of the Original of Evil. For as it professeth to speak of Adam not only as created by God but as appointed by him (r) Gen. 1.28 to give being by the way of natural Generation to all that after him should replenish the Earth which how he should be thought to do if he were only to be a means of furnishing them with a Body who had the better part of their being before is past my understanding to imagine so it professeth to speak of the same Adam as one by whom sin and death (Å¿) Rom. 5.12 1 Cor. 15.21 22. enter'd into the World as well as the persons of those on whom it seizeth And can there then be any place for a precarious hypothesis about the Original of Mankind or the evils of it Can there be place for advancing that hypothesis not only beside but against the determinations of the Scripture Do not all such hypotheses proceed upon the uncertainty of the matter about which they are conversant Do they not come in as a relief to the understandings of Men where they cannot be satisfied any other way But how then can there be place for such a one where the Scripture hath determin'd How can there be any place even for the most specious and plausible For as that cannot be suppos'd to be uncertain which the Scripture hath determin'd So no plausibility whatsoever can come in competition with the determinations of God such as those of the Scripture are But such it seems is the restlesness of some Men's minds that if they cannot satisfie their scruples from what the Scripture hath advanced they will be setting up other Hypotheses to do it by Wherein yet they are for the most part so unlucky as to advance such things themselves as have nothing at all of probability in them For who can think it any way probable that if mens Souls had an existence antecedent to their conception in the Womb they should not in the least be conscious of it nor of any of those things which were transacted by them in it Is it as one hath observ'd who seems to have been the first broacher of it in this latter Age is it I say for want of opportunity of being reminded of their former transactions as it happens to many who rise confident that they slept without dreaming and yet before they go to bed again recover a whole series of representations by something that occurr'd to them in the day But who can think when the Souls of Men must be supposed to carry in them the same evil tendencies and inclinations that they should never light upon any one thing which might bring back to their minds what they had formerly transacted or but so much as that they had a being antecedent to their present one For whoever was so forgetful of his dreams as not to remember he was sometime in a dreaming condition yea that he actually dreamed in it Is it secondly as the same Learned Man goes on by a desuetude of thinking of their former actions and whereby it sometimes comes to pass as he there observes that what we have earnestly meditated labour'd for and pen'd down with our own hands when we were at School becomes so lost to our memories that if we did not see our own handwriting to it we should not acknowledge it to be our own But doth this come home to the present case Doth it persuade such a forgetfulness in the Souls of Men as not only not to remember their particular actions but not so much as that they were in a condition to act any thing or acted any thing under it For though a Man may forget the particular exercise he did at School yet can any Man though he slept an Age and never so much as dream'd in all that time of being at School or any other thing be supposed if he awoke in his right wits to forget he was sometime in such a place and performed some exercises in it Is it lastly by means of some distemper that happens to the Soul by coming into an earthly Body and by which the foremention'd person conceives the Soul may suffer in its memory as we see it sometime doth in its
a relation to all our past sins so it relates in particular to Original Sin and consequently tends alike to the cancelling of its Obligation Witness not only the Churches applying this sign of it to Infants as that too as was before noted for the remission of sins but S. Paul's making that quickning (d) Ephes 2.1 c. which we have by Baptism to save us as well from that wrath which we were the Children of by Nature as from our own vain conversation and the punishment thereof For other sense than that as the generality of the Latins (e) Vid. Voss Pelag. Hist li. 2. part 1 Thes 2. did not put upon the Apostles words so neither is there indeed any necessity for or all things considered any probability of Partly because the Apostle might intend to aggravate the sinfulness of Men's former estate from their natural as well as contracted pollutions even as David aggravated his (f) Psal 51.5 where he deplores his Adultery and Murther and partly because there is sufficient evidence from other Texts of Men's being sinful by their birth as well as practice and which as S. Paul's Children of wrath by Nature is more strictly agreeable to so is therefore more reasonable to be interpreted of And I have insisted so much the longer both upon this particular and the Text I have made use of to confirm it because as Original Sin is one main ground of Baptism and accordingly in this very Catechism of ours represented by our Church as such so she may seem to make use of that very Text to evidence the being of Original Sin and the efficacy of Baptism toward the removing of it Her words being that as we are by nature born in sin and the Children of wrath so we are by Baptism made the Children of Grace From the Grace of forgiveness of sin pass we to that which tends to free us from its pollution entitled by our Church a death unto it A grace which as the corruption of our Nature makes necessary to be had so cannot in the least be doubted to be signified by the outward sign of Baptism It being not only the affirmation of S. Paul that all true Christians are dead (g) Rom. 6.2 to sin but that they are buried by Baptism (h) Rom. 4 into it that they are by that means planted together into the likeness (i) Rom. 5 of Christ's death and that their Old Man even the Body of sin is crucified (k) Rom. 6. with Christ in it For as that and other such like Texts (l) Col. 2.12 of Scripture are a sufficient proof of Baptism's having a relation to our death unto sin as well as unto the death of Christ So they prove in like manner that it had the relation of a sign unto it and consequently make the former death to be one of the Graces signified by it Because not only describing the Rite of Baptism under the notion of a death and Burial which it cannot be said to be but as it is an image of one but representing it as a planting of the Baptized person into the likeness of that death of Christ which is the exemplar of the other For what is this but to say that it was intended as a sign or representation of them both and both the one and the other therefore to be look'd upon as signified by it The same is to be said upon the account of those Texts of Scripture which represent the Water of Baptism as washing (m) Acts 22.16 away the sins of Men or if that expression may not be thought to be full enough because referring also to the forgiveness of them as sanctifying and cleansing (n) Eph. 5.26 27. the Church to the end it may be holy and without blemish For as that shews the Water of Baptism to have a relation to that grace which tends to free the Church from sinful blemishes so it shews in like manner that it was intended as a sign of it and of that inward cleansing which belongs to it There being not otherwise any reason why the freeing of the Church from sin by means of the Baptismal water should have the name of cleansing but upon the account of the analogy there is between the natural property thereof and the property of that Grace to which it relates One only Grace remains of those which tend more immediately to our spiritual welfare even that which our Catechism entitles a new birth unto righteousness Concerning which I shall again shew because that will be enough to prove that it is a Grace signified by it that the Water of Baptism hath a relation to it and then that it hath the relation of a sign I alledge for the former of these S. Paul's entitling it the laver of regeneration (o) Tit. 3.5 as our Saviour's affirming (p) Joh. 3.5 before him that we are born again of that as well as of the Spirit For the latter what hath been before shewn in the general concerning its having been intended as a sign of the things to which it relates For if the Water of Baptism were intended as a sign of those things to which it relates it must consequently have bin intended as a sign of our new birth because by the former Texts as manifestly relating to it But so we shall be yet more fully perswaded if it carry in it a representation of that new birth to which it doth relate Which that it doth will need no other proof than its being an apt representation of that spiritual purity which the Soul puts on at its first conversion and wherein indeed its new birth (q) Eph. 4.24 consists For so it is in part by that cleansing quality which is natural to it and which induceth a purity in those bodies to which it is applied But especially by the use that was formerly made of it toward the washing of new-born Infants from those impurities which they contracted from the Womb This last serving to set forth the first beginnings of our spiritual purity as well as the former doth that purity it self And I shall only add that as a resurrection from the Dead is also a kind of new Birth and accordingly so represented by the Scriptures themselves witness their entituling our Saviour upon the account of his Resurrection the first-begotten (r) Col. 1.18 from the dead yea making that Resurrection of his to be a completion (Å¿) Acts 13.33 of that signal prediction of God (t) Psal 2.7 Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee So the same Scriptures do not only represent our new birth unto Righteousness under the notion of a Resurrection but sufficiently intimate that whether Birth or Resurrection to be a Grace signified by it Because not only admonishing us to look upon our selves as a live unto God by Baptism (u) Rom. 6.11 as well as dead unto sin in it but as risen (w)
Now though it be hard to find any one Text of Scripture where that forgiveness whereof we speak is expresly attributed to Baptism Yet will it not be difficult to deduce it from that (q) Eph. 2.1 c. which I have before shewn to entreat of our becoming the children of wrath by nature as well as by the wickedness of our conversations For opposing to the corruption or rather deadness which accrues by both the quickning we have together with Christ and which quickning he elsewhere (r) Col. 2.12 as expresly affirms to be accomplished in us by Baptism Affirming moreover that quickning to bring salvation (ſ) Eph. 2 5-8 and peace (t) Eph. 14-17 and reconciliation (u) Eph. 16. for so he discourseth of it in the following Verses of that Chapter he must consequently make that quickning and the means of it to tend to the forgiveness of both and particularly of natural corruption Because as that quickning is by him oppos'd to both so it must in this particular be look'd upon as more peculiarly opposed to the latter because that is more peculiarly affirm'd to make Men the Children of wrath and vengeance Such evidence there is of the outward visible sign of Baptism being a means fitted by God to convey that forgiveness whereof we speak And we shall need no other proof than that of its being also a pledge to assure the baptized person of it For since God cannot be suppos'd to fit any thing for an end which he doth not on his part intend to accomplish by it He who knows himself to partake of that which is fitted by God to convey forgiveness of sin may know alike and be assur'd as to the part of God of his receiving that forgiveness as well as the outward means of its conveyance For which cause in my Discourse of its other inward and spiritual Graces I shall take notice only of that outward and visible sign as a means fitted by God to convey them because its being also a pledge may be easily deduced from it PART VI. Of Mortification of sin and Regeneration by Baptism The Contents Of the relation of the sign of Baptism to such inward and spiritual Graces as tend to free us from the pollution of sin or introduce the contrary purity And that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby they are convey'd This evidenced as to the former even our death unto sin which is also explain'd from such Texts of Scripture as make mention of our being baptiz'd into it and buried by Baptism in it or from such as describe us as cleansed by the washing of it The like evidenc'd from the same Scripture concerning the latter even our new birth unto righteousness As that again farther clear'd as to this particular by the consentient Doctrine and practice of the Church by the opinion the Jews had of that Baptism which was a Type and exemplar of ours and the expressions of the Heathen concerning it The Doctrine of the Church more largely insisted upon and exemplified from Justin Martyr Tertullian and S. Cyprian I Have considered the sign of Baptism hitherto in its relation to Forgiveness that Grace which tends to free men from their guilt and is for that purpose convey'd by Baptism to us I come now to consider it in its relation to those which either tend to free them from the pollution of sin best known by the name of a Death unto it or to introduce the contrary righteousness and is call'd a new birth unto it Where again I shall shew in each of them that as the outward work of Baptism hath the relation of a sign unto them so it hath equally the relation of a means fitted by God to convey them and where it is duly receiv'd doth not fail to introduce them To begin as is but meet with that which hath the name of a Death unto sin because sin must be first subdu'd before the contrary quality can be introduc'd Where first I will enquire what we are to understand by it and then what evidence there is of the sign of Baptism's being fitted to convey it For the better understanding the former whereof we are to know that as Men by the corruption of their nature are inclined unto sin and yet more by the irregularity of their conversations so those inclinations are to the persons in whom they are as a principle of life to a living Creature and accordingly do both dispose them to act sutably thereto and make them brisk and vigorous in it Now as it cannot well be expected that where such inclinations prevail Men should pursue those things which piety and vertue prompt them to so it was the business of Philosophy first and afterwards of Religion if not wholly to destroy those inclinations yet at least to subdue them in such sort that they should be in a manner dead and the persons in whom they were so far forth dead also They neither finding in themselves the like inclinations to actual sin nor hurried on by them when they did How little able Philosophy was to contribute to so blessed an effect is not my business to shew nor indeed will there be any need of it after what I have elsewhere * Expl. of the Creed Art. I believe in the Holy Ghost said concerning the necessity of the divine Grace in order to it But as Christianity doth every where pretend to the doing of it and which is more both represents that effect under the name of a death unto sin and compares Men's thus dying with that natural death which our Saviour underwent so it may the more reasonably pretend to the producing of it because it also pretends to furnish Men with the power of his Grace to which such an effect cannot be suppos'd to be disproportionate The only thing in question as to our present concernment is whether as the outward work of Baptism hath undoubtedly the relation of a sign unto it so it hath also the relation of a means fitted by God for the conveying of it and what evidence there is of that relation Now there are two sorts of Texts which bear witness to this relation as well as to its having that more confessed relation of a sign Whereof the former entreat of this Grace under the title of a death unto sin the latter of a cleansing from it Of the former sort I reckon that well known place to the Romans where S. Paul doth not only suppose all true Christians †Rom. 6.2 to be dead to sin and accordingly argue from it the unfitness of their living any longer therein but affirm all that are baptized into Jesus Christ * Rom. 6.3 to be baptized into that death yea to be buried by Baptism (a) Rom. 6.4 into it to be planted together (b) Rom. 6.5 by that means in the likeness of Christs death and to have their old Man (c) Rom. 6.6 or
some of the most eminent among them and which whosoever shall seriously consider will wonder how it should come to fall back to a naked and ineffectual sign For Justin Martyr (r) Apolog. 2. p. 93 94. speaking concerning those who had prepar'd themselves for Baptism affirms them to be brought by the brethren to a place where water is and there to be regenerated after that way of regeneration wherewith they themselves were Which what it was and of how great force he afterwards shews by affirming them thereupon to be wash'd in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as that too conformably to what our Saviour spake concerning the necessity of men's being born again To what the Prophet Isaiah meant when he said Wash you make you clean put away wickednesses from your souls And in fine to procure their deliverance from that whether natural or habitual corruptions they were under the power of For these things shew plainly enough that as he spake of the Baptismal regeneration so he spake of it too as a thing which procur'd as well as figur'd the internal regeneration of them To the same purpose doth Tertullian discourse and particularly in his Tract de Baptismo Witness his calling it in the very beginning thereof that happy Sacrament of our water wherewith being wash'd from the faults of our present blindness we are freed into eternal life His affirming presently after that we the lesser fishes according to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or greater one Jesus Christ are born in the water neither can continue safe unless we abide in it That we ought not to wonder if the waters of Baptism give life when that Element was the first that brought forth any living creature That as the Spirit of God moved at the beginning upon the face of waters so the same spirit of God after the invocation of his name doth descend from Heaven upon those of Baptism and having sanctified them from himself gives them a power of sanctifying others For these and the like passages shew as plainly that that Authour look'd upon the outward sign of Baptism as contributing in its place to the production of our new birth or sanctification as well as to the representation of it But of all the Antient Fathers that have entreated of this affair or indeed of that Sacrament which we are now upon the consideration of there is no one who hath spoken more or more to the purpose than S. Cyprian or whose words therefore will be more fit to consider Only that I may not multiply testimonies without necessity I will content my self with one single one but which indeed for the fulness thereof will serve instead of many and be moreover as clear a testimony of our dying unto sin by Baptism as of our regeneration by it For when saith he (ſ) Epist ad Donat. I lay in darkness and under the obscurity of the Night When uncertain and doubtful I floated on the Sea of this tossing World ignorant of my own life and as great a stranger to truth I thought it exceeding difficult as the manners of Men then were that any one should be born again as the divine mercy had promis'd and that being animated to a new life by the laver of salutary water he should put off that which he was before and whilst the frame of his body continu'd the same become a new Man in his heart and mind For how said I is it possible that that should be suddenly put off which either being natural is now grown hard by the natural situation of the matter or contracted by a long custom hath been improv'd by old Age c. To these and the like purposes I often discours'd with my self For as I was at that time entangled with many errours of my former life which I did not then think it was possible for me to put off So I willingly gave obedience to those vices that stuck to me and through a despair of better things I favour'd my evils as though they had been my proper and domestick ones But after that through the assistance of this generating water the blemishes of my former life were wash'd off and my mind thus purged had a light from above poured into it After that the second birth had chang'd me into a new Man through the force of that spirit or breath which I suck'd in from above Then those things which were before doubtful became exceeding certain and manifest things which were before shut were then laid open and dark things made light Then that which before seemed difficult appear'd to help rather than hinder and that which sometime was thought impossible as possible to be done So that it was not difficult to discern that that was earthly which being carnally born did before live obnoxious to faults and that that began to be God's which the Holy Ghost now animated You your self verily know and will as readily acknowledge with me what was either taken from or bestow'd upon us by that death of crimes and life of vertues Which as it is an illustrious testimony of the force of Baptism in this particular and with what reason we have affirm'd it to be a means of procuring the former death and birth So I have the more willingly taken notice of it because it comes so near even in its expression to what our Catechism hath represented as the inward and spiritual Grace thereof There being no great difference between a death of crimes and life of vertues which is the expression of that Father and a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness which is the other's And I shall only add that as the Doctrine of the Church must therefore be thought to bear sufficient testimony to Baptism's being a means of our regeneration So its practice is in this particular answerable to its Doctrine and though in another way proclaims the same thing Witness what hath been elsewhere observ'd concerning its giving Milk and Hony (t) See Part 3. to the new Baptized person as to an Infant new-born its requiring him presently after Baptism to say (u) Expl. of the Lord's Prayer in the words Out Father Our Father c. as a testimony of his Son-ship by it And in fine its making use of the word regenerated to signifie Baptized As is evident for the Greek Writers from what was but now quoted out of Justin Martyr De vitâ B. Martini c. 1. Necdum tamen regeneratus in Christo agebat quendam bonis operibus Baptismatis candidatum and from Sulpitius Severus among the Latins Which things put together make it yet more clear that whatever it may be now accounted yet the Church of God ever look'd upon the Sacrament of Baptism as a mean of our internal regeneration And indeed as it is hard to believe that it ought to be otherwise esteem'd considering what hath been alledg'd either from Scripture or the declarations of the Church So it
a belief in that Jesus into whose Religion he is admitted That Profession of his supposing Repentance and Faith to have been before in him as without which otherwise he could not there make a sincere Profession of renouncing sin or of believing in the name of the Lord Jesus But so that I may add that by the way the Antient Church appears to have requir'd before she admitted men to the participation of Baptism Justin Martyr where he professeth to give a sincere account of her doings in this affair telling those he wrote his Apology to that such as were persuaded and believ'd that the things taught and said by the Christians were true (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. p. 93. and moreover took upon them so to live were taught to pray and ask of God with fasting the forgiveness of their former sins and then and not till then brought by them to the place of Baptism and there regenerated after the same manner with themselves Which is so clear a proof of the Antients believing Repentance and Faith to be prerequisites of Baptism that nothing need to be added to it For the clearing of the first of which we are to know that though Repentance in strict speech be nothing else than a sorrow of mind for those sins we stand guilty of before God Yet as even so it presupposeth a right apprehension of those sins as without which we could never be brought to a due sorrow for them so taking Repentance as our Catechism and the Scripture also sometime doth as one of the two prerequisites of Baptism For S. Paul in one place (b) Acts 20.21 makes that Repentance and Faith the sum of his Preaching to the Jews and Greeks and in another (c) Heb. 6.1 the foundation of our Christianity it will be found to imply in it whatsoever that sorrow for sin doth naturally dispose men to as well as that sorrow it self The same S. Paul elsewhere professing that he shewed both to the Jews and Gentiles that they should turn unto God as well as Repent and do works meet for Repentance as well as either To attain therefore a due understanding of this Repentance as well as to clear that definition of it which our Catechism hath given us it will be necessary for us to enquire what this Repentance doth presuppose what it imports and to what it doth dispose us That which Repentance doth most manifestly presuppose is a right apprehension of that sin about which it is to be conversant And may be fetch'd in part from the dictates of our own reason but more especially from the declarations of Christianity concerning it Such as are that sin is the transgression of a Law and particularly of that of God and that as such it justly exposeth us to his wrath and indignation Partly as it is a violation of his Authority to whom we are naturally subject and partly as an equal affront to his goodness who gives us our being and all things else and who therefore ought more diligently to have been attended to In fine that it hath for its wages Death both temporal and eternal and under each of which without the mercy of God in Christ the sinner must necessarily fall For as these are known in part from the dictates of our own reason to be the properties of that sin whereof we speak So they are much more known to be so from the Doctrine of Christianity and consequently to be known by us toward a right apprehension of that which ought to be the matter of our sorrow But from hence it will be easie to collect what that sorrow for sin doth import which is requir'd of all those that take upon them the Profession of Christianity Even that it importeth such a sorrow of mind as hath a regard to the violation of God's Authority and Goodness by it as well as to the evils which are like to arise to it from our selves Our sorrow being in reason to be suited to that which is most considerable in the object of it And indeed as otherwise it will be rather a sorrow for punishment than sin because sin as such is a transgression of God's Law and consequently our sorrow for it to have a more especial regard to the affront that is offer'd him thereby So it will much less deserve those titles which are given it by the Scripture of being a sorrow or repentance toward (d) Acts 20.21 God for so it is sometime stil'd and a sorrow (e) 2 Cor. 7.9 according to God or a Godly one as it also is That being neither toward God nor according to God which hath not a regard to that affront which is offer'd to him by sin as well as to the evils which are like to accrue unto our selves But because even such a sorrow will not qualifie us for Baptism unless we add thereto what the same sorrow doth naturally dispose us to Therefore to make out more fully the true nature of Repentance as well as to clear our Churches definition of it I will proceed to that and shew what those things are Of which nature I reckon first an ingenuous confession of sin and earnest prayer to God for the pardon of it Sorrow for sin when considered only with reference to its appendant punishment being likely enough to dispose us so to confess and ask pardon of it if it were only to unburthen our selves and free our selves by that and prayer from the punishment we have deserv'd How much more then when consider'd as a sorrow for that affront which we have by means of our sin offer'd to God's both Authority and Goodness He to whom such an affront is matter of sorrow being likely enough to be thereby dispos'd so far to acknowledge that Authority and goodness as to own them upon the postfact by confession and prayer for pardon He who confesseth and asketh pardon of God acknowledging that God had and hath an Authority to command and punish him as he who doth the latter that God is of equal goodness as of whom otherwise it would be in vain for him to ask pardon for his offences Whence it was that when the Church proceeded by strict and safe measures she not only taught those that offer'd themselves to Baptism to ask of God with fasting the forgiveness of their forepast offences but as we learn from Justin Martyr (f) Vbisupra added her own prayers and fasts to theirs so the better to encourage and give force unto the others I reckon of the same nature secondly a resolution to forsake sin and pursue the contrary vertues Which I do not only upon the Authority of the foremention'd Father who reckons that (g) Loco prius citato also as a prerequisite to Baptism but as it is a thing to which sorrow for sin doth alike naturally dispose us He to whom sin is so irksome needing no other motive than that irksomeness to oblige him to
saved from everlasting damnation by Christ And it is not only saith another (n) Hom. of Faith. the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but it is also a sure trust and considence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a stedfast hope of all good things to be receiv'd at God's hands In fine saith the same (o) Ibid. Homily the very sure lively Christian faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in holy Scripture but also to have an earnest trust and confidence in God c. Which suppos'd as we may because we can have no more Authentick interpretation of it to be the sense of the belief here intended it will not be difficult to shew what our Catechism means by a stedfast one For considering the belief of these Promises as an Assent of the mind to them so a stedfast belief will imply that which is free from all doubts and which the mind of man gives to those Promises without any the least fear of their being any Collusion in them Which the mind of man may well give considering whose those Promises are and that they have both God and Christ for the Authors of them On the other side if we consider the belief intended as including in it also an affiance or trust and by vertue of which the heart or will is prompted to desire as well as believe the matter of those Promises and acquiesce in those Promises for the attaining of it So this stedfast belief will also imply such a one as is firmly rooted in the heart or will and can no more be rooted out of it by the force of temptations than the other by doubts or scruples And indeed as I do not see how any other belief than that can answer such glorious promises as are made to us in the Sacrament of Baptism so I see as little reason to doubt IV. What evidence there is of that being the Faith or belief which is pre-requir'd by Christianity to the receiving of it For though S. Luke may seem to intimate by the account he gives of the Baptism of the Samaritans (p) Acts 8.12 that they were baptiz'd upon a simple belief of what Philip preach'd concerning the things of the Kingdom of God Yet he doth much more clearly intimate afterward that Christianity requir'd another sort of belief and such as was accompani'd with an adherence of the will unto them He making it the condition of the Eunuch's Baptism afterward that he should believe with all his heart (q) Acts 8.37 Which is an expression that in the language of the Scripture referrs rather to the will and affections than to the understanding but however cannot well be thought not to include them there where the believing with all the heart is requir'd And indeed as I do not see considering the Doctrine of our First Reformers why this notion of Faith should be so exploded as it seems to me lately to have been As I do much less see why men should so boyle at that Justification which was wont to be attributed in an especial manner to it So if I live to finish the work I am now upon I will in a Comment upon the Epistle to the Philippians which I have almost gather'd sufficient materials for endeavour to clear both the one and the other that men may neither take occasion from thence to discard good works as unnecessary nor yet stay themselves upon any other than the promises of Christ and on which the holiest men upon earth when they have been approaching near God's tribunal have found themselves oblig'd to cast themselves In the mean time a little to repress the youthful heats of those who can hardly forbear smiling at such antiquated notions I will set before them the advice which was order'd to be given to sick persons when good works to be sure were not without their just repute It is among the Interrogatories which are said (r) Field of the Church Append. to the 3d. Book pa. 303. to have been prescrib'd by Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury and particularly after that which prompts the Priest to ask Dost thou believe that thou canst not be sav'd but by the death of Christ and the sick persons Answer that he did so Go too therefore as the Priest was taught to proceed and whilst thy soul remaineth in thee place thy confidence in this death alone and in no other thing commit thy self wholly to it cover thy self wholly with it immerse fix and wrap thy self wholly in it And if the Lord God will judge thee say I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment otherwise I contend not with thee And if he say that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins If he say to thee thou hast deserv'd damnation say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my evil deserts and I offer the same death for that merit which I ought to have had and have not If he continue as yet to say that he is angry with thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy displeasure Words which shew what kind of Faith was sometime thought to be a justfying one and what stress was laid upon it before ever Fanaticism or any thing of that nature was heard of in the World. PART XI Of the Baptism of Infants The Contents What ground Infant-Baptism hath in Scripture and particularly in what it suggests concerning Christ's commanding his Disciples to suffer little Children to come unto him S. Paul's giving the Children of the faithful the title of Holy and the Circumcision of Infants The concurrence of Antiquity therein with the Doctrine of the Scripture and that concurrence farther strengthned by the Pelagians so freely admitting of what was urg'd against them from thence A brief account of that remission and regeneration which Infants acquire by Baptism and a more large consideration of the Objections that are made against it More particularly of what is urg'd against the Regeneration of Infants in Baptism or their ability to answer what is pre-requir'd to it on the part of persons to be baptiz'd or is to be performed by them in the reception of it Where the Regeneration of Infants is more largely considered and what is promis'd for them by others shewn to be both reasonable and sufficient FRom the Baptism of those of riper years Question Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them Answer Because they promise them both by their sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform pass we to that of Infants or Children the only Baptism upon the matter now celebrated and therefore so much the more carefully to be clear'd and establish'd In order whereunto I will enquire I. What