to go up to Mount Calvary for to enter into his Sepulchre you are entered into it and buried with him if by Faith you do mortifie and destroy the Body of Sin to this end we are baptized Nor is it a whit the more necessary for having part in his Resurrection to go and kiss the last Print of his Feet upon M. Olivet We are risen with him if being affected with the glory he brought out of his Tomb and convinced of the truth of the discoveries he made of a blessed Immortality we live as becomes the Gospel in all holy Conversation all the Graces and Priviledges of which Baptism is a sign and seal on God's Part are continued to us upon performance of that Duty to which Baptism is an Engagement on our Part and there is no Grace of God but tends to lay an Obligation on us The Grace which hath appeared unto us in the Gospel teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live righteously and holily for 't is naturally inconsistent that we should be happy partakers of the blessed effects of God's Love and Favour and the merits of Christ unless we be holy and therefore as we have the priviledge to be buried with Christ in Baptism or to be baptized into him so 't is necessary that we put on Christ as our great Lawgiver and Example to live according to the rule of his holy Doctrine and Precept and to walk in that way which he hath trod before us For in the Institution of Baptism our Lord did not only design a benefit to us so as to make it an Instrument of Advantage in a way of Grace but also to bring us under an Obligation of Duty As then we value the Priviledge let us not neglect the Duty As we are glad of the mercy offered So let us mind the Stipulation on our Part what an obligation lies upon us to live a Christian life solemnly to resolve upon the profession and practice of the Law of Christ according to our utmost Capacity and the Ability God hath given us So that tho' in our Infancy the faith and repentance of our Parents or Proparents such I mean by whom we are adopted may be reckoned as ours by vertue of God's Promise to Believers and their Seed Yet if in due time we do not personally believe and repent our Baptism is made frustrate and vain 't is then in our Choice either to rescind or annul our Baptism and to turn Heathens or Apostates Or to ratifie and confirm the same If we disclaim and renounce our Baptism We do in effect disclaim and renounce all Right and Title claim and interest in the promises of Christ we cast him off tread his Blood under Foot as an unholy Thing Neither can we expect any strength from him against Temptations but are left in the Power and under the dominion of all Sin and Villany We renounce the Article of remission of Sins and the claim and right which otherwise we might have to everlasting Life But if we submit to the terms of the Covenant and embrace the Conditions we stand obliged and bound to lead a mortified and a Holy Life to be implanted into the similitude of Christ's Death and Resurrection or we make void the Grace of God and most unworthily forfeit and reject it by breaking Covenant with him These things being considered we cannot chuse but confess that as it was a great act of Charity in our Friends so early to engage us in so beneficial an Indenture So we are bound to stand to their Engagement which they made in our Name and to observe the Conditions of it through the whole course of our Lives especially considering that as God hath by his own Institution and Appointment put us under a strict Obligation of Duty so we have by our Baptism submitted to the terms and actually undertaken the Conditions Having to this purpose entered into a most solemn League and Covenant and as it were subscribed thereunto promising and vowing unto God to answer our Engagement to our utmost Ability So that the Vow and Covenant of God is upon us to live as his Servants as Men who are dead to Sin and alive unto God Know you not was the sharp and cutting expostulation of St. Paul to all licentious Christians Rom. 6.3 who presume when once they are baptized into the Church of Christ and profess themselves Christians and partake of the Ordinances they may then live as they list and be saved however This is intimated in the first Verse of that 6th to the Romans where 't is said Let us continue in sin that grace may abound as if some had thus flattered themselves that though they continued in the course of their Sins yet however grace and mercy from Christ would abound towards them and save them But the Apostle as startled at such an Imagination crys out God forbid God forbid such a horrid thought should possess any of our Hearts and then subjoyns the impossibility that any such foul imagination should prevail upon the Heart and life of any regenerate Christian which would be as strange a Prodigy as if the dead should rise out of their Graves and Walk and Live as they did in their life time and thereupon he bids them to look to their Baptism for that they cannot be Ignorant that when they were baptized into Christ Jesus they were baptized into his death and here in my Text buried with him in Baptism And doth the Death the Burial of Christ stand for a Cypher Hath Christ his Death and Burial no tye upon us in this holy Sacrament Hath it no Power Vertue or Influence Certainly it hath done us little good if we exemplifie it not in the death and mortification of Sin This is the duty of every baptized Christian So far necessary that we can have no benefit by our Baptism no portion in Christ or in his Death and Burial but by our being dead and even buried unto Sin If it be said how must we be thus dead to Sin to have any share in Christ and his Death For we cannot say we are dead to it we find it still lively and stirring in us and too much prevailing with us I answer We are then dead to Sin when we live not any longer therein And that is to expound the Apostle's meaning First When we do not only refrain and forbear our Sins for a while but do really aim at no less than the mortification of our Lusts Secondly When though we are not quite dead to Sin yet we are not dead in Sin but are sensible of the Venom and Sting of it Thirdly When though we cannot live and not Sin yet we do not live in it 'T is not as our Life so far from that that 't is grievous to us 't is as Death Lastly When though our Sins be not quite dead yet they are languishing and decaying in a lingering and dying state and if we commit Sin
Christ And the rising of the Body up out of the Water of his Resurrection This is not so pointed out by sprinkling Now for Answer hereto to avoid Repetition see the Reply Page the 80. And grant that we do not in our way of administring at least so exactly and fully represent Christ's Burial and Resurrection of which as I have shewn there is no absolute necessity that it should be so done in the Ceremony it will concern us nevertheless to consider how we may be said to be buried and risen with Christ in a spiritual figurative Sense and to see that the fruits and consequence of our Baptism do answer as his Death so his Burial which speaks not only our dying unto Sin but our continuing and persevering in this state of Mortification and likewise his Resurrection in our symbolizing therewith in rising to newness of Life First As to our Burial with Christ our Saviour's lying three Days in the Grave puts it beyond all doubt that he was in the state of the Dead so true believers are buried with him But how can that be you 'l say that we who are true believers suppose being yet living can be buried with him we never were laid in the Grave Surely not in our Lords Which was scituate on Mount Calvary nigh to Jerusalem places very distant from our abode But we must know that 't is not a natural but a Mystical Grave or Sepulchre that the Apostle refers to and so we may be said in a figurative Sense to be buried with Christ and that in a double Respect First In regard of our justification for the remission of Sins Secondly With respect to our sanctification and the mortification of the old Man Concerning the first 't is certain as he was not crucified and put to Death so neither was he buried which is nothing but the consequent of Death but for us and having under-gone Death and descended to the dismal state of the Grave for our Salvation 't is evident that when he was buried we were buried in him and with him since 't was properly for us that he descended into the Grave in that his burial hath discharged this part of our Punishment and consequently hath changed the nature of our Graves that instead of being Prisons and Places of Execution our Graves are now so many Beds and Dormitories wherein our Bodies do repose until the Resurrection But 't is not in this sense that the Apostle saith here we are buried with Christ but he speaks rather of the first Part of our Sanctification the Mortification of the old Man in us and its Burial that is the bringing of it to nought forasmuch as by Christ's Death and Burial our old Man the body of Sin hath been destroyed and suffered a Death and Burial like to Christ's that as his Flesh after it was deprived of Life was laid in the Grave in like manner the old Man of true Believers having been slain is interred 'T is in him and with him that we have been buried in this sort If he had not suffered the one and the other for our Salvation had not I say his Death and Holy Sepulchre derived unto us an Image and a Copy of his Burial destroying and burying by the vertue and merits thereof our old Man and bringing on him a Mystical Death and Burial Sin would still live and reign in us In like manner the latter Clause of my Text must be so understood viz. That Christ by vertue of his Resurrection doth work and produce one in us which has Resemblance and Analogy with his own viz. A Resurrection to a new Spiritual and Evangelical Life instead of that vile and wretched Life which we had by Nature without which we had lain still dead and in bondage to Sin For that which formeth in us the new Man and gives us the courage to renounce the World that we may live above the World is the perswasion of the love of God and the pardon of our Sins together with the hope of a blissful glorious Immortality of which he gives us assurance from his having taken possession of the same for himself and us These are the blessed effects and fruits issuing as from the Death so from the Burial and Resurrection of Christ which are sealed to us in the Ordinance of Baptism Indeed all the means and ordinances which God hath appointed and enjoyn'd us to make use of in Religion have no other tendency but to communicate Jesus Christ to us as dead buried and risen again for us to the destroying of the old Man and reviving the new nor do they ever fail to produce these effects in any of those that receive them as they ought and are not wanting in their Duty But the Apostle speaks here only of Baptism the first and proper Sacrament or means of Regeneration So treating of the same Subject elsewhere * Rom. 6.3 where he expresseth himself in like manner which should confute their folly who withstood one of the old Sacraments of Moses its giving place to this of Christ's institution so productive of this double effect and which is also represented as our Apostle here intimates and as I have already observed in the external Action and manner of Administration But suppose sprinkling does not carry so express a Figure of Christ's Burial and Resurrection as that of immersion or dipping nevertheless the vertue of Holy Baptism is still the same If therefore we meet with any baptized Persons as there are but too many such in whom the old Man is so far from being buried that he lives and reigns with absolute Power and the new Man hath neither Life nor Action at all It may not be imputed to Christ who always accompanies his Sacraments with his saving vertue but unto their own unbelief who do wretchedly repel the operation of the Grace God and obstruct the effects which he would have assuredly produced in them if their unworthiness had not frustrated his efficacy towards them And therefore 't is added Through the faith of the operation of God an evident Token that the Sacrament doth mortifie Sin in us and raise us to Holiness according to the Faith it meets with in us Now how happy should we be if we had these things Written and Engraven in deep Letters on our Hearts if our actions did justifie our Profession that we are buried and risen again with Christ in Baptism by the faith of the operation of God but alas it must be confest to our shame there appears in the lives of most of us a very imperfect Idea of the Burial and least of all of the Resurrection of Christ the Flesh lives and exerciseth great Tyranny in us The new Man that breaths nothing but Heaven and loves nothing but Holiness hath no place in us 't is so far from reigning there that he acts no more than a dead Body fast shut up in the Grave There is no need to run to Palestine nor
and greater Priviledges are granted to all English Subjects without mentioning the former or their Children those former Priviledges are held by all Lawyers to belong still to all English Subjects and their Children because all such Acts and the beneficial Clauses thereof are still in Force 'till they are repealed by the same Authority and Power that made them neither will it suffice to say that the Priviledge here granted is in a Testamentary way and the making a New Testament is a vertual repealing any former Will or Testament so that supposing this was a Legacy bequeathed to the Jewish Church by Christ's Testament yet forasmuch as 't is not granted by Christ's last Will and Testament which we call the Gospel or the New Testament the Priviledge ceaseth of it self But this Comparison is faulty and will not hold For the Old Testament or as it is by way of distinction with reference to that Ministration sometimes called the Law and the Gospel tho' they differ in Circumstantials yet are not two Wills of Christ but for substance one and the same Will and Testament even the same Covenant of Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ or if you will the Gospel in respect of the Law is like a Schedule or Codicil to a Will the adding some further Legacies not already given and no Legacies that were bequeathed in the foregoing Will can be cut off except they be particularly recalled in the Codicil in like manner Infants Church-membership must remain in force under the Gospel except it be the Will of Christ it should cease and he had declared as much in the Codicil of the New Testament but no such thing appearing there proves it still in force 'T is not denied but that the Collective Body of the Jews were broken off from the Church thro' unbelief * Rom. 11.20 that is by reason of their positive infidelity whereby they did directly and openly disown and reject the true Messiah yet all of them were not there were many thousands or as the word is Myriads of the Jews that believed as the Scripture witnesseth †Act. 21.20 Neither were the rest broken off but the believing Gentiles were inoculated in amongst them ‖ Grotius on Rom. 1.17 till they professedly rejected Christ and were become open Enemies to his Gospel now it would be unreasonable to infer that all the Infants were broken off for the infidelity of some of the Parents The elect Jews which obtained Mercy kept their Station and so must needs be conceived to retain their Priviledges for themselves and theirs otherwise they would become losers to what they were before the exhibition of Christ in respect of their Infant Seed for they who were before within and wore the Badge of the Covenant should afterwards be without and deprived of that Dignity and 't is the general received opinion and even of some Anabaptists * This is granted by Harrison in his Paedo Baptism oppugn'd as he is cited by Geree in his Vindiciae Vindiciarum pag. 20. that what Priviledges the Nation of the Jews had before their Rejection the same shall they recover with an advantage at their Restoration †Hos 2.23 Rom. 11.25 26. and to say the Geniles shall not have the same Covenant-Priviledges with them is to make a difference and so set up a Partition-wall when as the Apostle asserts ‖ Gal. 3.28 both Jew and Grecian Male and Female are all one in Christ * Act. 8.12 which shews the Apostle's Practice in the Case And the reason on which it was grounded you have Gal. 3.28 fore-quoted Summarily and briefly excluding Children out of the Covenant and debarring them of the Sign put a sacrilegious restraint thereon and excludes them from the ordinary way of Salvation for if they have no visible interest in the Covenant in regard of God's visible dispensation then they have no visible interest in Christ they are no way related to him who is the Mediator of the Covenant we conclude therefore that the aforesaid Law of keeping the Covenant and of entering into the Covenant is as much in force as ever and we are still bound to observe the Covenant and the token of it that is after the manner of its Administration for the time being if the Sign be changed the Case is not altered our Obligation continues the same Now Baptism is the initiating Ordinance as afore when Circumcision was the Token Not but that there is a difference in the Administration viz. That whereas the Females are as susceptive of the Rite of Baptism as the Males therefore 't is equally and as distinctly to be administred unto them * See our warrant for this Gal. 4.9 10. Neither hath God taken any order in that Case of Infants to tie us to administer it precisely on the 8th Day no more then he hath done in the Case of the adult or actual Believers whether immediately upon their believing or the next Day or the Day after but the Gospel indulging a discretionary Latitude in both Cases it may be done sooner or later provided we do not out of a profane or careless humor procrastinate it as St. Cyprian argues in his Epistle to Fidus †Epist 58 the query was about baptizing Infants before the 8th Day Fidus did not deny Infant Baptism but only denyed the baptizing of them till then to which the Father returns this Answer that both himself and the Council with him which consisted of 66 Bishops unanimously determined that a Child might be baptized as soon as he was Born whereupon St. Austin speaks to this effect that St. Cypr. did not make any new Decree but observing the faith and practice of the Church judged with his own fellow Bishops that as soon as one was Born he might be lawfully baptized Ut parvuli si infirmari contingat eodem die quo nati sunt bpatizentur Concil Gerund Can. 4. yea in danger of Death in ipsa hora says Greg. l. 12. Epist 10. apud Magdeb. Cent. 6. c. 6. Col. 367. and Ina King of the West Saxons made a Law that Infants should be baptized within thirty Days after their Birth under the penalty of thirty shillings a great sum in those Days Leg. Inae c. 2. apud Spelm. Concil Ang. Tom. 1. p. 183. Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris Matrum baptizandos negat Anath sit Concil Milevit Can. 2. apud Magdeb. Cent. 5. c. 9. col 835. Caranz fol. 123 being the 11 Conc. in the African Code confirmed by the 4th and 6th general Council there being no necessity why we should delay their Baptism but rather that we should hasten it all we can so long as I may add we become not alike Superstitious with the Church of Rome who in danger of Death do it e're the child is fully Born into the World ‖ Si timeatur de morte Infantis antequam nascatur caput ejusd appareat extra uterum infundat
be saved ‖ Act. 11.14 Thus it was promised to the Gaoler that on his Faith not only himself should be saved but his House and upon his Profession he was baptized and all that were his or all that belonged to him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 16.31 33. therefore not only the major Part of his Family according to the false and corrupt Gloss of the Anabaptists but simply and absolutely all that lived under his Roof Moreover how reasonable is it to believe that there were Children in those Families as part of the Houshold for the word House or Houshold in Scripture signifies Children eminently being the principal Materials Ben a Son and Bath a Daughter do both come from the Root †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filia à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 edificavit Metaphor de liberorum procreatione Deut. 25.9 Buxt So Gen. 16.2 Margin be built by her Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Banah which signifie to build and figuratively to procreate Children and so to build an House or Family Thus God promising to give Children unto David is pleased to express him-himself in this Phrase I will build thee an House because Children under God do build up the House and keep up the name of their Father's Family and so to build an House or Family being the ordinary Instruments as to perpetuate and continue and hold up the House in Natural and Civil so in Religious and Ecclesiastical Respects likewise accordingly the Apostle directing a Bishop to rule his House well presently names Children * 1 Tim. 3.4 as the most considerable part of his Charge and Care Wherefore as it often falls out when some parts of the Family are expresly instanced in and the nomination of Children omitted they are nevertheless intended and included as Gen. 14.16 Neither do we read of any laid aside or excluded from Baptism upon the account of their Non-age yea 't is highly probable that those Children yea sucklings as the original Word imports which were brought to Christ with a desire in them that brought them that he should lay his hands on them had been already baptized now 't is said expresly that he laid his Hands on them †Luk. 18.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a former Translation Babes but we rever read in the N. T. of the laying on of Hands on any unbaptized Persons unless perhaps it were in order to the working some miraculous Cure ‖ Mark 10.16 In all other Cases imposition of Hands was practised on baptized Persons * See Mark 8.23.16.18 Luke 4.40.13.13 Act. 9.17.28.8 only and the reason given by Christ to his Disciples why they should countenance and further rather then restrain their Access to him sufficiently evinceth that they were brought upon a spiritual Account rather than for any bodily Cure And as a further Argument to shew that the practice was Apostolical I may add hereto the Testimonies and Suffrages of the Ancient Fathers a Vid. Cassander de bapt of the Eastern and Western Churches both of the Greek and Latine Church Origen affirms in express Terms that the Church from the Apostles days received a Tradition to Baptize Children b In his Comment on the Epist to the Rom. c. 6. l. 5. and that Baptism is to be given unto Infants according to the Tradition of the Church c In his 8 Homil. on Levit. who yet was contemporary according to Osiander and Funesius account with Tertullian neither could Tertullian himself be so sottish as to oppose an imaginary abusive practice of having Sureties or Hyginus Bishop of Rome before him to order as he did about the Guardianship of Infants in appointing such who should promise for their religious Education in that Faith whereinto they were batized d See Platina in the life of Hyginus the 8th Pope from St. Peter according to Caran if the baptizing of them was not a thing in use before and so an Apostolical ordination derived down to them and from them transmitted to the Church where the practice of it hath been uninteruptedly continued ever since Why should Tertullian I say affright Persons from being Susceptors to Infants in their Baptism by the Hazard they ran in their Childrens liableness to Death and to Distempers if no such thing were in his time It had been dangerous to start such a Novellism if never before practised St. Austin writ a Tract of Infant Baptism e De Bapt. parvulorum and says the Church always had it always held it f Semper habuit semper tenet in his 5 Serm. de verb. Apost Justin Martyr who lived as they calculate in St. John's Days in his unquestionable Works gives several hints for Infant Baptism g As in his Dialogue with Triphon part 2. prop. 3. Irenaeus speaks of Infants being Born again that is by the Laver of Regeneration viz. Baptism as Dr. Hammond understands it h Irenaeus l. 2. c. 29. Dr. Ham. resolution Sect. 4. pag. 212. Nazianz is for it not only in danger of Death but simply and absolutely expressing himself to this purpose Hast thou a Child let it be baptized from an Infant let it be early consecrated to the Spirit i Orat. 3. and 40. in S. Lavacr St. Basil gives Testimony to it answering the Question whether Infants may be baptized in the Affirmative for so says he we are by the Circumcision of Children instructed there being a parity of reason as for the circumcising of Children k l. 3. contra Eunomium 58. Vossius makes the Testimony of St. Cyprian in his Epistle l Epist to Fidus which for its authenticalness is quoted by Nazianzen Chrysostom Ambrose Jerom Austin and others m Vid. Naz. Orat 3. in S. Lavacr Chrysost Homil. ad Neoph. Ambr. in Luc. Hieron l. 3. Dialog contr Pelag Aust in his 28 Epist to St. Jerom in his 14 Serm. de verb. Apost in his Book de peccat merit remiss and in his 3 Book c. 5. beyond all exception and Grotius says it makes the matter plain that there was then no doubt of Infant Baptism accordingly the Magdeb. bring in Origen Cypr. and other Fathers to avouch the Practice to have been even in the time of the Apostles n Cent. 3. c. 4. pag. 57. Now what says St. Austin touching such immemorial usages as the Catholick Church holds and ever hath held and have not come into use by the Institution of any Council that they are such as are rightly believed to have been delivered down to us by no less than Apostolical Authority o In Donat. l. 4. c. 23. calling it an Eccles Custom or as he explains himself an Apostol Tradition se de Genesi ad literam l. 10. c. 23. and his 3 Epist to Volusiam and lest there should be any wresting of his words viz. Traditum ab Apostolis or Apostolical Tradition he peremptorily affirms
speaking of the Church's Authority in this Case of Paedobaptism that it was without all question delivered by the Lord and his Apostles p l. 1. De peccat merit remiss c. 16. Proculdubio per Dominum Apostolos traditum The word Tradition the Fathers understood not in the Popish Sense for that which hath been delivered in Doctrine from Age to Age above what is written to supply the supposed defect of the Scripture but for the very written word it self by which they delivered the truth and for their examples and report thereof tending to the explication of their Doctrine and not to the adding any new Doctrine Calvin affirms the baptizing of Infants to be a holy Institution observed in Christ's Church q Instit 4. c. 16. Sect. 6. All the Reformed Churches use it as you may see by the Harmony of their Confessions r Th. à Jesu de Convers omnium Gentium l. 7. pag. 506. The Greek Church who yearly excommunicate the Pope Baptize their Infants s Pagit of Heresies pag. 17. so the Cophti or native Christians of Egypt who have no Communion with the Roman Church And the practice being so general and Primitive Erasmus wondered what evil Devil entered them who denyed the Baptism of Children used in the Catholick Church above 1400 Years and he might the rather for that it hath been the general Consent and almost universal Practice not only of all Christendom but of all the World Jews Gentiles Mahometans Christians of all Sects Protestants Papists Greeks Armenians Muscovites Mengrelians Indians of St. Thomas Abyssines c. as a modern Author observes to use some solemn initiating Ceremony to admit their Children not yet adult into the Society and Communion of their Religion These Authorities with others cited in the Margin * Constit Clementis there 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptize your Infants l. 6. c. 19. Concil Melevit can 2. apud Magdeb Cent. 5. cap. 9. col 835. Caranz fol. 123. Ambros l. de Ahrah Patriarch Hier. contra Pelag. lib. 3. Ut Christus Infantes ad se venire jussit ita nec Apostoli eos excluserunt à Baptismo quidem dum baptismus Circumcisioni aequiparat Paulus Col. 2. aperte indicat etiam Infantes per baptismum Ecclesiae dei esse inferendos c. Magdeb. Cent. l. 2. c. 4. Magdeb. Cent. 2. 't is said nec usquam legitur Infantes hoc seculo à Baptismo remotos esse We don't read they were then excluded Baptism c. 4. p. 48. de Baptismo nor as 't is said until the 6th Cent. when 't was excepted against by one Adrianus That Terull himself was for Infant Baptism appears in that in his Book De anima cap. 39. He presseth it when the Child is in danger of Death and gives his reason lib. de Bapt. cap. 12. praescribitur nemini sine Baptismo competere salutem Council of Trullo Can. 48. requires that all the Grecian little ones without delay should be baptized One of the 8 Cannons in the Council of Carthage concluding against Pelagius decreed that whosoever denyed Baptism for the remission of sins to a new Born Infant should be anathematiz'd see Craggs Arraigment and Conviction of Anabaptism against Tombs pag. 85. Photius a learned Greek produceth an Imperial Constitution wherein it was decreed that all baptized Samarit and Grecians should be punished who brought not their Children to holy Baptism apud Craggs ibid. I lay down as I might have done many more not to tye the Baptism of Children to the Testimony of Men but as a Martyr for the Protestant Religion did to shew how Mens Testimonies do agree with God's Word w In a Letter that Mr. Philpot writ whilst he was in Prison and that Antiquity is on our side and that the Anabaptists have nothing but false and new Imaginations who feign the Baptism of Children to be the Pope's Commandment or any late Invention or Innovation Nor is our manner of administring this sacred Rite by sprinkling or pouring on of Water novel as I said or unjustifiable for the word to Baptize usually signifies as much which as Dr. Featly x Dipper dipt pag. 33. See Wells also in his Answer to Danvers pag. 242. Printed Anno 74. and Walker's Discourse of dipping and sprinkling wherein is shewn the lawfulness of other ways of Baptization besides that of total Immersion Printed Anno 78. says Hesychius Stephanus Scapula and Budaeus those great Masters of the Greek Tongue makes good by many Instances and Allegations out of Classick Writers And in this sense is it used in Scripture So the Fathers were baptized in the Clould not dipt therein for they were under the Cloud * 1 Cor. 10.2 but were wet or sprinkled therewith So Nebuchadnezzar was wet or sprinkled or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuag hath it baptized with the Dew of Heaven Hence we read of diverse washings or Baptisms as the word is And what were those but sprinklings Sometimes Blood was sprinkled †Hebr. 9.10 sometimes Water was poured forth No Person was dipt or plunged in Blood yet those sprinklings were called Baptisms So Mark 7.4 except they wash the Original is except they be baptized and the manner of their washings before Meat was not by dipping but by pouring on of Water ‖ 2 Kings 3.11 We read also of washing or baptizing Tables * Mark 7.4 in the Margin beds vid Lightfoot vol. 2. p. 345. and other things many times a Day which if done by dipping would make the labour of the Jews intolerable besides many other inconveniences And 't is but reasonable that the outward Baptism should have allusion to and an Analogy with the inward We are said to be baptized with the Holy Ghost but not dipt into the Holy Ghost or his Graces but to be sprinkled therewith as with clean †Ezek. 36.25 Water in our Baptism and to have the Holy Spirit poured on us * Isaiah 44.3 And it had been more properly translated baptized in Water if it had been done only by dipping rather than baptized with Water Again if we take a Survey of the several Instances and Examples of Persons baptized in Scripture we shall find that 't was probably done by sprinkling or pouring on of Water rather than by dipping St. Paul was baptized by Ananias when Sick and Weak having fasted three Days and was not strengthened till he received Meat which was after he was baptized †Act. 9.18 19. and according to all Circumstances it was done in his Lodgings So when the Goaler and those that belonged unto him were baptized it was at a time and place that there could be no accommodation for Water and other Conveniences for plunging and dipping as the manner of some is for 't is not likely that the Apostle should carry the Goaler and all his in the dead of the Night to a River or Pond to Baptize them 'T is said
dangerous a Consequence should light upon himself for having so palpably and so grosly added to the Word and to the belying of the Angel making him say what he did not But he saith 't is hard for him to believe that I really think that they were baptized so by sprinkling though I so write and appeals to me whether the word Baptize doth not signifie to dip or plunge and not to Sprinkle I have shewn that the Word signifies not only to dip but to wash or pour on Water or to Sprinkle and is often so used in Scripture and gave instances of which he takes no notice Christ no where requires dipping but baptizing And as to the method or manner how it should be done the Scripture is silent nor can there be an Example produced absolutely for dipping I believe that some were baptized in Scripture by pouring on of Water or by Sprinkling others by dipping But I question whether after the manner of our Anabaptists We don't deny dipping as in it self unlawful as they do pouring on of Water or Sprinkling but we say the practice is Schismatical when done in opposition and dangerous in such a cold Climate and in some seasons of the Year And when too the Party is of a weak and sickly Constitution And troubled with Catarrhs Consumptions and the like Page the 26. He pleads for dipping from the significancy of the Ceremony referring to Colos 2.12 I do not in the least deny but that it seems to follow from thence that there was such a Custom in those Days as to Baptize by immersion which carryed a very sensible shew of a Burial and a Resurrection but the Negative cannot be thence concluded that there was no other way of baptizing but that nor is it probable there was no other way because there are other Texts of Scripture which allude to sprinkling in Baptism as this doth to dipping And the like Collection must be allowed to be made from the one that is made from the other and farther because there may be and is a Baptismal representation made of a Burial and of a Resurrection in aspersion and affusion of Water as well as in dipping * Vossius cites several Authors who deny any such Representation to be required the thing being as they say but accidental and not essential to Baptism and in case there ought to be at least some similitude of that Nature this he tells us is exprest in aspersione etiam vel perfusione quia cujus caput as he adds aspergitur vel perfunditur is aquis istis quasi sepelitur Theses Theologicae pag. 360. He that hath Water poured on him as well as he that is dipt is put under Water And the Water falling on him that is sprinkled fairly represents the Earth falling upon him that is Buried and speaks the similitude of a Burial And by the one as well as by the other we may be said to be buried with Christ by Baptism into Death The Representation then is made both ways tho' in the one 't is more lively and sensible than in the other and the appearing again after and from under that affusion represents also a Resurrection so that the Symbol is not spoiled here Accordingly in the Provincial Council of Colen * Sub Hermanno Celebrato Anno 1530. sprinkling as well as dipping is indifferently spoken of as expressive of a Type of Christ's three Days Burial and our conformity to him in that and his Resurrection Moreover Christ's bodily Actions and Passions must be imitated and represented by us after a spiritual way and 't is a vain thing to imagine that every Metaphorical Expression used in the Scripture signifying our Communion with Christ and conformity to him should punctually express the Mystery in the Sacrament both as to the Letter and Spirit The Metaphorical Expressions are various Putting him on buried with him sprinkling with his Blood And what hinders but that the Symbolical Ceremonies and the Sacramental Signs may be so too or at least variously used or accompanied with various circumstantial Ceremonies One Sign after one and the same way administred cannot express our Communion with Christ and our conformity to him in his Death and Resurrrection as to all the foregoing Metaphors Our Communion with Christ in his Death and Resurrection and our conformity to him therein is the sacramental Grace and that being represented as well by sprinkling or pouring on of Water as by dipping it follows that Water in either way of application is Sacramental Again our washing and cleansing from Sin by the Blood of Christ and the raising up our Souls to a spiritual Life being the principal effects of Christ's Death and Resurrection represented and sealed in the Sacrament is truly set out as hath been shewed by sprinkling as well as by dipping Hence under the Law the sacrificial cleansing was done by sprinkling in some Cases and by dipping in others * Numb 19.18 19. Heb. 9.13 and the purifying by Christ's Blood is equally represented by both called therefore the Blood of sprinkling and sprinkling of Blood †Heb. 12.24 1 Pet. 1.2 In his Conclusion not to spare me but to tell me my own he reminds me of his old Item formerly given that we have neither Precept nor Example for Infant-Baptism So say the Papists as well as the Anabaptists tho' in other Words That 't is a mere Ecclesiastical Constitution no Divine Apostolical Ordinance In this they are not unlike Sampson's Foxes joyned together by the Tails whilst their Heads look several ways both asserting the same Position tho' to different Ends the one to establish human Tradition the other to undermine a Divine Ordinance But I reply nothing is more certain than that the Ordinance of Baptism is instituted and appointed us in the Gospel But there is no distinct Precept that particularly determines us to administer it to those of such or such an Age or more to Persons of one Age than another but 't is left to us to apply the Ordinance to those we find qualified according to the rules and directions given us in the Word of God without any respect to the Age. Neither do I know the particular Age of any one baptized in Scripture Unless that our Saviour was then about thirty Years old * Luke 3.21 22 23. Answering therein the legal Type of the Priests and Levites who ordinarily entered not their Function till at that Age. Num. 4.3 23 30. but who will say that we are bound precisely to observe that Time in our reception of Baptism If you say in general Terms it must be when we are come to the Age of Maturity or Discretion let it be proved that the Scripture either by Precept or Example hath limitted it to that only or that the adult or grown Persons are declared in Scripture to be the only qualified Persons or that those in the state of Infancy are declared not be qualified or capable and you have gained the
Gospel-Govenant of which Baptism is the Sign is not without its Conditions which Baptism seals in a way of particular application not only that upon the performing our part of the Covenant we shall obtain the Grace but it seals up to every receiver their particular right in the Graces promised If we do not forfeit all by violating and breaking the Covenant and rend'ring our selves unworthy of the benefits of it Hence the Sacrament of Baptism is said by the Schools to be gratiae exhibitivum an Ordinance of exhibiting and conferring Grace to those that are rightly baptized not by its own Operation but through the Operation of God alone who in the right use of Baptism does always perform what he hath promised For who can deny the effect when we have God's fiat for it Some indeed ascribe too much to Baptism others leave it as a mere naked Sign The bare Element 't is true hath not a power and vertue to convey Grace The Water is not a subject capable to receive it and consequently cannot convey it it toucheth not the Soul it cannot operate upon that to infuse real Grace this would be to ascribe that to the external Instrument which is peculiar only to the great efficient Cause What it conveys and confers is not from any vertue of its own by its bare application but by vertue of Christ's Institution and its relation to the Covenant For this Reason its effects are not confin'd to the instant of its Administration But it extends its efficacy and influence throughout our Lives it continues a seal to the Covenant and the promises of Grace and Mercy till the Covenant be utterly violated by absolute Apostacy or final Unbelief And so it continues an Instrument to convey Grace during our whole Lives not only remission of Sins for the time present but upon our perseverance in the conditions of Faith and Repentance it continues this Grace of Pardon to us to the last Period So that we are but once baptized for the remission of Sins though we daily contract Guilt because being once received it remains a perpetual Pledge and Testimony of the everlasting Covenant of God and of the continual washing away of Sin by the Blood of Christ 'T was therefore a causeless fear occasioned from the Novatian Errour that made some of the Ancients defer Baptism till near their death as tho' it did not continue to exhibit and convey the Grace of Pardon But from what I have already noted there is no resting on the bare work done All are not upon the receiving the external Baptism regenerate and made partakers of internal Grace as if it were necessarily annexed to the outward Ordinance Real Sanctification doth not always accompany the Ministration of Baptism Nevertheless the Ordinance is not without its effect in a way of Grace it doth confer on us in a Sacramental Way what it doth exhibit and Seal to And till there be a Bar put by Men's actual Rejection those that are truly baptized have a right to the Grace and Mercy sealed And tho' Baptism be not always an Instrument of infusing real Grace Yet hereby we are actually de presenti made partakers of relative Grace and have a right to real sanctifying Grace in that way that God gives it and so are partakers of relative Regeneration Being as it were born again into a new State of gracious Relations Priviledges and Hopes And our Baptism is the Character and Sacramental Seal of this new blessed State of Adoption and Salvation And this continues as I have said till there be a forfeiture on our Part and he that will not call this Grace knows not how to value things Spiritual But how rich so ever this Baptismal Grace may be in its self and effects for the benefit of Infant-Innocency 't is not that which is the terms of our Salvation in riper Age when we come under the guilt of actual Sins Those that arrive to the Years of Reason and Choice to them the Gospel tenders Salvation upon condition of actual Faith and Repentance What is sealed to us in our Infant-state is continued to us upon other conditions at Age The Grace that is made over by the free Covenant of God and sealed in Baptism confers a right to the baptized So that if he dies in this State he dies in this right But there are other things required for the continuance of it at years of Knowledge and Reason which as it is a great Foundation of comfort touching the Salvation of dying Infants and justifies that Clause formerly in the rubick for Baptism so it destroys the vain presumptions of others and takes Men off from resting on the Grace of Baptism as if it were sufficient for their Salvation not considering whatever Mercy or Priviledge Baptism doth confirm is continued to us upon other conditions after we come to Age and fall under the guilt of actual Sins Again To be baptized is to be enrolled a Member of the Church incorporated into the Communion of Saints ingrafted into Christ's Mystical Body The Apostle speaking of Christ Mystical under the similitude of a natural Body 1 Cor. 12.13 saith We are baptized into Jesus Christ into that noble blessed Society of which Christ is the Head and to which belong the Adoption and the Covenant and the Promises It would be too large a digression particularly to insist upon the Priviledges and Advantages of the Church of Christ beyond the rest of the World Sure I am of all the judgments that God inflicted upon the Jews none had comparably that fire of Fury that terrour of Wrath in it which was executed in the accomplishment of the threatning mentioned Zach. 11.9 10. upon their heinous Provocation in crucifying the Lord of Life which filled up the number of their Sins Upon which they were rejected cut off from the Olive-Tree and their Church-enclosure pluckt down So that they were no longer his peculiar People but were left in common with the rest of the World without God without Christ and so without all hope of Salvation Whereas they only that are added to the Church that are separated to be God's peculiar Inheritance among all the Tribes of the Earth are in the way to be saved as being the sole objects of his special Care and Providence And therefore it must needs be a blessed Priviledge to be brought within the Pale to be owned by God under such a Relation Now into this Body this Society this holy Corporation we are baptized And as the Church in its Constitution is blessed of God beyond all the World So all its Members have the advantage of other benefits flowing from the Communion of Saints in order to their spiritual and eternal Good As the labours and services of God's Ministers and Ambassadors all are theirs whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas they are all Servants of Christ for the edifying this his Body and the building of them up till they come to Perfection Again they
have the invisible guard of Angels watching over and ministring for the good of such as are Heirs of Salvation they have all an interest in the Charity Love and Prayers of the whole Mystical Body all joyning in common in their Liturgies for every single Member how e're divided from one another by Countries and Languages yea every single Member of this Body hath the united strength of the Prayers of all the Saints on Earth and I doubt not but in a general manner the Prayers of all the glorious Society the crowned part of the Church in Heaven our elder Brethren who have finished their warfare and do now possess the Kingdom of Glory Should we go no further we may reflect and thankfully acknowledge this happy Priviledge to be called to this state of Salvation Hence we are brought into a state of Union with Christ made Members of his Mystical Body and partakers of the influences of his favour in all the means and ordinances helps and advantages whereby he declares himself the Saviour of the Body By vertue of this Union all the special saving Graces of his purchase are freely offered the doors of Mercy stand open to us and the gate of Life and Glory is ready to receive us provided we abide in him Hold the head from which all the body as the Apostle says Colos 2.19 by joynts and bands have nourishment ministred and so don't separate from him by Apostacy and fall off by an evil heart of unbelief by an impenitent course of Sin and Wickedness so long I say as we maintain this Union we shall not fail to receive influences of Grace and spiritul Life till we come to Glory Having considered what the Sacrament of Baptism is and the Priviledges and Advantages that redound from thence I come to evince the truth of the general Proposition viz. That the Ordinance of Baptism is the initiating Sacrament of the New Testament and so succeeds Circumcision which is generally granted to be the initating Sacrament of the Old In order to this let it be premised that there can be no Reason given why we should not be by some rite matriculated Members of the Christian as well as heretofore they were thus solemnly initiated into the Jewish Church Now what other way is prescribed to us of doing this than by Baptism the most proper rite for this purpose as it hath been in a manner all along accounted This rite of Initiation of admitting Persons into religious Societies was used by the Posterity of Noah at least very early among the Jews Their Enquiry John 1.25 28. sounds as much as a tacit acknowledgment of their practising it Vid. Wills against Danvers pag. 7. though not as a Sacrament till the Messiah had confirmed it for which we have the Testimonies of their Rabbies cited by the learned Doctor Hammond * In his Query of Infant-Baptism And Bishop Taylor is inclined to give the more credit to such Authorities because the Heathen as he saith had the same Rite in many Places and in many Religions Hence a Proselyte is called in Arrianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one baptised Baptism being his solemn Investiture who should enter into any Sect or Religion being thereupon reckoned one of that Sect or Religion A Proselyte or Convert in the Apostle's Phrase such an one is said to be added to the Church The Jews have a Tradition that Sarah and Rebeckah when they were adopted into the Family of the Church that is the Church respectively as it was in Abraham's and Isaac's House were baptized In St. Paul's Catechism Baptism is reckoned as part of the Foundation of the first Principles of Religion and so proper for Babes Whereby they are matriculated and adopted as a late Reverend Prelate expresseth it into the House of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother This then is the ordinary method God hath taken of adding to the Church such as should be saved And therefore it cannot be denied but that Baptism as an initiating Rite succeeds Circumcision And my Text will avouch for the truth thereof For the Apostle having told the Colossians that they had the Circumcision made without hands the Circumcision of the Heart He further signifies by way of implication that they had as good as the outward Circumcision too by being baptized or he could have no occasion to add buried with him in Baptism And his Argument had been a mere Non sequitur unless he gave them to understand thereby that Baptism succeeded and came in place of Circumcision And that this was the genuine Sense and intendment of the Apostle I have I conceive not only more fully illustrated but demonstrated in the foregoing Discourse * Pag. 43. whereto I refer the Reader I proceed in the third Place to shew that as Christ's Death so his Burial and Resurrection are not only exemplified in the Ceremony and manner of its Administration but that they ought to be exemplified after a spiritual manner in the blessed effects and fruits of that Holy Sacrament viz. In our Mortification and Vivification First As to the Symbol or Ceremony Christ's Burial and Resurrection may be and are represented in the external Action of that Sacrament or manner of its admistration And the Apostle seems to allude to a Practice which might then be used by some in those hot Countries viz. Of dipping or putting the whole Body under Water in Baptism But forasmuch as the Word Baptize carries not always that signification or import and for that there is no Command that Baptism should be always administred exactly after that manner such a Practice cannot be binding to us So that should it be granted that there are some very probable instances and examples in Scripture of dipping and immerging the whole Body in Baptism as it must be granted there are as likely examples and instances of only sprinkling and pouring on of Water This will only argue that we cannot thereby be bound up to either way But are at liberty to administer it according to the more prevailing custom where we live Moreover this Ceremony of dipping cannot be practised towards Infants without great inconvenience and even danger of their Lives in so tender an Age and in so cold a Country as ours is especially in the Winter Season But here the Anabaptists step in and urge from hence their way of dipping and think this is enough for them not only to plead in their own justification but to confute our way of baptizing only by sprinkling or pouring on of Water Accordingly a certain Person who takes upon him to Answer my foregoing Discourse hath these very words Baptism must be by dipping not sprinkling because Baptism rightly administred doth figure out the Death Burial and Resurrection of Christ But I know not wherein sprinkling doth it And then citing Rom. 6.3 4. he immediately subjoyns When the Body is put down under Water O what resemblance is this of the Burial of