baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea so by a double figure foretelling That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath so should all the persons of the Church Men Women and Children be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant he proved that we do not exceed them and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us nor their children ours But after this something was to remain which might not onely consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham but be as a passage from the Fathers thorough the Synagogue to the Church from Abraham by Moses to Christ and that was Circumcision which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace and to be a seal of the righteousness of faith which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males yet it was not to the females and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea yet the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes and to all that were circumcised and the Jews deliver That Sarah and Rebecca when they were adopted into the family of the Church that is of Abraham and Isaac were baptized and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel And that we may think this typical of Christian Baptism the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition that when the Messias would come there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised but should be baptized The Tradition proved true but not for their reason But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of Religion by Baptisms was used by the posterity of Noah or at least very early among the Jews besides the testimonies of their own Doctors I am the rather induced to believe because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion and they c thought Murther Incest Rapes and the worst of Crimes were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} intinctus a baptized person But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions that to baptize and to make disciples are all one and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether John's Baptism was from heaven or of men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from Heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implies also That such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by persons of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till John were but types and preparatory Baptisms and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies John's Baptism called them to believe in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand and Preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins His Baptism remitted no sins but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated the Disciples of Christ finished it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples as John did onely they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Jesus which it is not so likely John did a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms b of Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing In the Name of Iesus and at other times In the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his Resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority though with some difference of Mystery The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of John and by his Baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led onely by outward things might be the better called in and easier inticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy He sublim'd it to higher ends and adorned it with stars of Heaven He made it to signifie greater mysteries to convey greater blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper then the skin and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transferr'd the Rite to greater mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practise was made to pass into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while he
Righteousness the garment of gladness vestment of Light or rather Light it self And for this reason it is that Baptism is not to be repeated because it does at once all that it can do at a hundred times for it admits us to the condition of Repentance and Evangelical Mercy to a state of pardon for our infirmities and sins which we timely and effectually leave and this is a thing that can be done but once as a man can begin but once he that hath once entred in at this gate of life is alwayes in possibility of pardon if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man that which he hath promised to the Son of God And this was expresly delivered and observed by S. Austin That which the Apostle sayes Cleansing him with the washing of water in the word is to be understood that in the same laver of regeneration and word of sanctification all the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed not onely the sins that are past which all are now remitted in Baptism but also those that are contracted afterwards by humane ignorance and infirmity Not that Baptism be repeated as often as we sin but because by this which is once administred is brought to pass that pardon of all sins not onely of those that are past but also those which will be committed afterwards is obtained The Messalians denyed this and it was part of their Heresie in the undervaluing of Baptism and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot in his third Book 195 Epistle to the Count Hermin whither I refer the Reader In proportion to this Doctrine it is that the holy Scripture calls upon us to live a holy life in pursuance of this grace of Baptism And S. Paul recals the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant and the grace of God stipulated in Baptism Ye are all children of God by faith in Iesus Christ that is heirs of the promise and Abrahams seed that promise which cannot be disannulled increased or diminished but is the same to us as it was to Abraham the same before the Law and after Therefore do not you hope to be justified by the Law for you are entred into the Covenant of Faith and are to be justified thereby This is all your hope by this you must stand for ever or you cannot stand at all but by this you may for you are Gods children by faith that is not by the Law or the Covenant of Works And that you may remember whence you are going and return again he proves that they are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ because they have been baptized into Christ and so put on Christ This makes you children and such as are to be saved by faith that is a Covenant not of Works but of Pardon in Jesus Christ the Author and Establisher of this Covenant For this is the Covenant made in Baptism That being justified by his grace we shall be heirs of life eternal for by grace that is by favor remission and forgiveness in Jesus Christ ye are saved This is the onely way that we have of being justified and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of heaven for besides this we have no hopes and all this is stipulated and consigned in Baptism and is of force after our fallings into sin and risings again In pursuance of this the same Apostle declares That the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of baptismal grace and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of or a contradiction to the state of Baptism we are then unpardonable because we are faln from our state of pardon This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrews This is the Covenant I will make in those days I will put my laws in their hearts and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin that is our sins are so pardoned that we need no more oblation we are then made partakers of the death of Christ which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist and representment But the great work is done in Baptism for so it follows Having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Iesus by a new and living way that is by the vail of his flesh his Incarnation But how do we enter into this Baptism is the door and the ground of this confidence for ever for so he addes Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water This is the consignation of this blessed state and the gate to all this mercy Let us therefore hold fast the profession of our faith that is the Religion of a Christian the faith into which we were baptized for that is the faith that justifies and saves vs Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this faith and do all the intermedial works in order to the conservation of it such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints the use of the word and Sacrament is included in the precept mutual Exhortation good Example and the like For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is if we sin against the profession of this faith and hold it not fast but let the faith and the profession go wilfully which afterwards he cals a treading under foot the Son of God a counting the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and a doing despite to the Spirit of Grace viz. which moved upon these waters and did illuminate him in Baptism if we do this there is no more sacrifice for sins no more deaths of Christ into which you may be baptized that is you are faln from the state of pardon and repentance into which you were admitted in Baptism and in which you continue so long as you have not quitted you baptismal Rights and the whole Covenant Contrary to this is that which S. Peter calls making our calling and election sure that is a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism and the grace of the Covenant And between these two states of absolute Apostasie from and intirely adhering to and securing this state of Calling and Election are all the intermedial sins and being overtaken in single faults or declining towards vitious habits which in their several proportions are degrees of danger and insecurity which S. Peter calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a forgetting our Baptism or purification from our sins And in this sense are those words The just shall live by faith that is by that profession which they made in Baptism from which if they swerve not they shall be supported in their spiritual life It is a grace which
things are possible And as to the event of things it is evident in the story of the Gospel That the faith of their relatives was equally effective to children and friends or servants absent or sick as the faith of the interested person was to himself As appears beyond all exception in the case of the friends of the Paralytick let down with cords thorough the tyles of the Centurion in behalf of his servant of the noble man for his son sick at Capernaum of the Syrophoenician for her daughter and Christ required faith of no sick man but of him that presented himself to him and desired for himself that he might be cured as it was in the case of the blinde men Though they could believe yet Christ required belief of them that came to him on their behalf And why then it may not be so or is not so in the case of Infants Baptism I confess it is past my skill to conjecture The Reason on which this further relies is contained in the next Proposition 4. No disposition or act of man can deserve the first grace or the grace of pardon for so long as a man is unpardoned he is an evemy to God and as a dead person and unless he be prevented by the grace of God cannot do a single act in order to his pardon and restitution so that the first work which God does upon a man is so wholly his own that the man hath nothing in it but to entertain it that is not to hinder the work of God upon him and this is done in them that have in them nothing that can hinder the work of grace or in them who remove the hinderances of the latter sort are all sinners who have lived in a state contrary to God of the first are they who are prevented by the grace of God before they can choose that is little children and those that become like unto little children So that Faith and Repentance are not necessary at first to the reception of the first grace but by accident If sin have drawn curtains and put bars and coverings to the windows these must be taken away and that is done by faith and repentance but if the windows be not shut so that the light can pass thorough them the eye of heaven will pass in and dwell there No man can come unto me unless my Father draw him that is the first access to Christ is nothing of our own but wholly of God and it is as in our creation in which we have an obediential capacity but cooperate not onely if we be contrary to the work of grace that contrariety must be taken off else there is no necessity and if all men according to Christs saying must receive the Kingdome of God as little children it is certain little children do receive it they receive it as all men ought that is without any impediment or obstruction without any thing within that is contrary to that state 5. Baptism is not to be estimated as one act transient and effective to single purposes but it is an entrance to a conjugation and a state of blessings All our life is to be transacted by the measures of the gospel-Gospel-Covenant and that Covenant is consigned by Baptism there we have our title and adoption to it and the grace that is then given to us is like a piece of leaven put into a lump of dow and faith and repentance do in all the periods of our life put it into fermentation and activity Then the seed of God is put into the ground of our hearts and repentance waters it and faith makes it subactum solum the ground and furrows apt to produce fruits and therefore faith and repentance are necessary to the effect of Baptism not to its susception that is necessary to all those parts of life in which Baptism does operate not to the first sanction or entring into the Covenant The seed may lye long in the ground and produce fruits in its due season if it be refreshed with the former and the latter rain that is the repentance that first changes the state and converts the man and afterwards returns him to his title and recalls him from his wandrings and keeps him in the state of grace and within the limits of the Covenant and all the way faith gives efficacy and acceptation to this repentance that is continues our title to the Promise of not having righteousness exacted by the measures of the Law but by the Covenant and Promise of grace into which we entred in Baptism and walk in the same all the dayes of our life 6. The holy Spirit which descends upon the waters of Baptism does nor instantly produce its effects in the soul of the baptized and when he does it is irregularly and as he please The Spirit bloweth where it listeth and no man knoweth whence it cometh nor whither it goeth and the Catechumen is admitted into the Kingdome yet the Kingdome of God cometh not with observation and this saying of our blessed Saviour was spoken of the Kingdome of of God that is within us that is the Spirit of Grace the power of the Gospel put into our hearts concerning which he affirmed that it operates so secretly that it comes not with outward shew neither shall they say Lo here or lo there which thing I desire the rather be observed because in the same discourse which our blessed Saviour continued to that assembly he affirms this Kingdome of God to belong unto little children this Kingdome that cometh not with outward significations or present expresses this Kingdome that is within us For the present the use I make of it is this That no man can conclude that this Kingdome of Power that is the Spirit of Sanctification is not come upon Infants because there is no sign or expression of it It is within us therefore it hath no signification It is the seed of God and it is no good Argument to say Here is no seed in the bowels of the earth because there is nothing green upon the face of it For the Church gives the Sacrament God gives the grace of the Sacrament But because he does not alwayes give it at the instant in which the Church gives the Sacrament as if there be a secret impediment in the suscipient and yet afterwards does give it when the impediment is removed as to them that repent of that impediment it follows that the Church may administer rightly even before God gives the real grace of the Sacrament and if God gives this grace afterwards by parts and yet all of it is the effect of that Covenant which was consigned in Baptism he that defers some may defer all and verifie every part as well as any part For it is certain that in the instance now made all the grace is deferred in Infants it is not certain but that some is collated or infused however be it
name shall not be Abram but Abraham Nations and Kings shall be out of thee I will be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee and I will give all the Land of Canaan to thy seed and all the Males shall be circumcised and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and thee and he that is not circumcised shall be cut off from his people The Covenant which was on Abrahams part was To walk before God and to be perfect on Gods part To bless him with a numerous issue and them with the Land of Canaan and the sign was Circumcision the token of the Covenant Now in all this here was no duty to which the posterity was obliged nor any blessing which Abraham could perceive or feel because neither he nor his posterity did enjoy the Promise for many hundred years after the Covenant and therefore as there was a duty for the posterity which is not here expressed so there was a blessing for Abraham which was concealed under the leaves of a temporal Promise and which we shall better understand from them whom the Spirit of God hath taught the mysteriousness of this transaction The Argument indeed and the observation is wholly S. Pauls Abraham and the Patriarchs died in faith not having received the Promises viz. of a possession in Canaan They saw the Promises afar off they embraced them and looked through the Cloud and the temporal veil this was not it they might have returned to Canaan if that had been the object of their desires and the design of the Promise but they desired and did seek a Countrey but it was a better and that a heavenly This was the object of their desire and the end of their search and the reward of their faith and the secret of their Promise And therefore Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had before his Circumcision before the making this Covenant and therefore it must principally relate to an effect and a blessing greater then was afterwards expressed in the temporal Promise which effect was forgiveness of sins a not imputing to us our infirmities Justification by faith accounting that for righteousness and these effects or graces were promised to Abraham not onely for his posterity after the flesh but his children after the spirit even to all that shall believe and walk in the steps of our father Abraham which he walked in being yet uncircumcised This was no other but the Covenant of the Gospel though afterwards otherwise consigned for so the Apostle expresly affirms that Abraham was the father of Circumcision viz. by vertue of this Covenant not onely to them that are circumcised but to all that believe for this promise was not through the law of works or of circumcision but of faith And therefore as S. Paul observes God promised that Abraham should be a father not of that Nation onely but of many Nations and the heir of the world that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith And if ye be Christs then ye are Abrahams seed and heirs according to the Promise Since then the Covenant of the Gospel is the Covenant of Faith and not of Works and the Promises are spiritual not saecular and Abraham the father of the faithful Gentiles as well as the circumcised Jews and the heir of the world not by himself but by his seed or the Son of Man our Lord Jesus it follows that the Promises which Circumcision did seal were the same Promises which are consigned in Baptism the Covenant is the same onely that Gods people are not impal'd in Palestine and the veil is taken away and the temporal is passed into spiritual and the result will be this That to as many persons and in as many capacities and in the same dispositions as the Promises were applied and did relate in Circumcision to the same they do belong and may be applied in Baptism And let it be remembred That the Covenant which Circumcision did sign was a Covenant of Grace and Faith the Promises were of the Spirit or spiritual it was made before the Law and could not be rescinded by the Legal Covenant Nothing could be added to it or taken from it and we that are partakers of this grace are therefore partakers of it by being Christs servants united to Christ and so are become Abrahams seed as the Apostle at large and professedly proves in divers places but especially in the 4. of the Romans and the 3. to the Galatians And therefore if Infants were then admitted to it and consigned to it by a Sacrament which they understood not any more then ours do there is not any reason why ours should not enter in at the ordinary gate and door of Grace as well as they Their children were circumcised the Eighth day but were instructed afterwards when they could enquire what these things meant Indeed their Proselytes were first taught then circumcised so are ours baptized but their Infants were consigned first and so must ours 3. In Baptism we are born again and this Infants need in the present circumstances and for the same great reason that men of age and reason do For our natural birth is either of it self insufficient or is made so by the fall of Adam and the consequent evils that nature alone or our first birth cannot bring us to heaven which is a supernatural end that is an end above all the power of our nature as now it is So that if nature cannot bring us to heaven grace must or we can never get thither if the first birth cannot a second must but the second birth spoken of in Scripture is Baptism A man must be born of water and the spirit And therefore Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the laver of a new birth Either then Infants cannot go to heaven any way that we know of or they must be baptized To say they are to be left to God is an excuse and no answer for when God hath opened the door and calls that the entrance into heaven we do not leave them to God when we will not carry them to him in the way which he hath described and at the door which himself hath opened we leave them indeed but it is but helpless and destitute and though God is better then Man yet that is no warrant to us what it will be to the children that we cannot warrant or conjecture And if it be objected That to the new birth is required dispositions of our own which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of reason besides that this is wholly against the Analogy of a new birth in which the person to be born is wholly a passive and hath put into him the principle that in time will produce its proper
effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism But we are now instancing in that which relates most properly to the understanding in which respect the holy Spirit also is called anointing or unction and the mystery is explicated by S. John The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things 3. The holy Spirit descends upon us in Baptism to become the principle of a new life to become a holy seed springing up to holiness and is called by S. John {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the seed of God and the purpose of it we are taught by him Whosoever is born of God that is he that is regenerated and entred into this new birth doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life and now that he by the Spirit is born anew he hath in him that principle which if it be cherished will grow up to life to life eternal And this is the Spirit of Sanctification the victory of the world the deletery of concupiscence the life of the soul and the perpetuall principle of grace sown in our spirits in the day of our adoption to be the sons of God and members of Christs body But take this mystery in the words of S. Basil There are two ends proposed in Baptism to wit to abolish the body of sin that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death and to live in the Spirit and to have our fruit to Sanctification The water represents the image of death receiving the body in its bosome as in a sepulchre But the quickning Spirit sends upon us a vigorous {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} power or efficacy even from the beginning renewing our souls from the death of sin unto life For as our mortification is perfected in the water so the Spirit works life in us To this purpose is the discourse of S. Paul having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of Christ he addes this as the Corollary of all He that is dead is freed from sin * that is being mortified and buried in the waters of Baptism we have a new life of righteousness put into us we are quitted from the dominion of sin and are planted together in the likeness of Christs Resurrection that henceforth we should not serve sin 4. But all these intermedial blessings tend to a glorious Conclusion for Baptism does also consign us to a holy Resurrection It takes the sting of death from us by burying us together with Christ and takes off sin which is the sting of death and then we shall be partakers of a blessed Resurrection This we are taught by S. Paul Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection That declares the real event in its due season But because Baptism consigns it and admits us to a title to it we are said with S. Paul to be risen with Christ in Baptism buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him thorough the faith of the operation of God which hath raised him from the dead which expression I desire to be remembred that by it we may better understand those other sayings of the Apostle of putting on Christ in Baptism putting on the new man c. for these onely signifie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the design on Gods part and the endevour and duty on mans we are then consigned to our duty and to our reward we undertake one and have a title to the other and though men of ripeness and reason enter instantly into their portion of work and have present use of the assistances and something of their reward in hand yet we cannot conclude that those that cannot do it presently are not baptized rightly because they are not in capacity to put on the new man in righteousness that is in an actual holy life for they may put on the new man in Baptism just as they are risen with Christ which because it may be done by faith before it is done in real event and it may be done by Sacrament and design before it be done by a proper faith so also may our putting on the new man be It is done sacramentally and that part which is wholly the work of God does onely antedate the work of man which is to succeed in its due time and is after the manner of preventing grace but this is by the by In order to the present article Baptism is by Theodoret called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a participation of the Lords Resurrection 5. And lastly by Baptism we are saved that is we are brought from death to life here and that is the first Resurrection and we are brought from death to life hereafter by vertue of the Covenant of the state of Grace into which in Baptism we enter and are preserved from the second death and receive a glarious and an eternal life He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved said our blessed Saviour and according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost After these great blessings so plainly testified in Scripture and the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which are regularly consigned and bestowed in Baptism I shall less need to descend to temporal blessings or rare contingencies or miraculous events or probable notices of things less certain of this nature are those stories recorded in the writings of the Church that Constantine was cured of a Leprosie in Baptism Theodosius recovered of his disease being baptized by the Bishop of Thessalonica and a paralytic Jew was cured as soon as he became a Christian and was baptized by Atticus of C. P. and Bishop Arnulph baptizing a Leper also cured him said Vincentius Bellovacensis It is more considerable which is generally and piously believed by very many eminent persons in the Church That at our Baptism God assigns an Angel Guardian for then the Catechumen being made a Servant and a Brother to the Lord of Angels is sure not to want the aids of them who pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lord and that this guard and ministery is then appointed when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the Promises and their title to Salvation is hugely agreeable to the words of S. Paul Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation where it appears that the title to the inheritance is the title to this ministery and therefore must begin and end together But I insist not
For Baptism is a state of Repentance and pardon for ever This I suppose to be already proved to which I onely adde this Caution That the Pelagians to undervalue the necessity of supervening grace affirmed That Baptism did minister to us grace sufficient to live perfectly and without sin for ever Against this S. Jerome sharply declaims and affirms a Baptismum praeterita donare peccata non futuram servare justitiam that is non statim justum facit omni plenum justitiâ as he expounds his meaning in another place Vetera peccata conscindit novas virtutes non tribuit dimittit à carcere dimisso si laboraverit praemia pollicetur Baptism does not so forgive future sins that we may do what we please or so as we need not labour and watch and fear perpetually and make use of Gods grace to actuate our endevours but puts us into a state of pardon that is in a Covenant of Grace in which so long as we labour and repent and strive to do our duty so long our infirmities are pityed and our sins certain to be pardoned upon their certain conditions that is by virtue of it we are capable of pardon and must work for it and may hope it And therefore Infants have a most certain capacity and proper disposition to Baptism for sin creeps before it can go and little undecencies are soon learned and malice is before their years and they can do mischief and irregularities betimes and though we know not when nor how far they are imputed in every moneth of their lives yet it is an admirable art of the Spirit of grace to put them into a state of pardon that their remedy may at least be as soon as their necessity And therefore Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen advised the Baptism of children to be at three or four years of age meaning that they then begining to have little inadvertencies hasty follies and actions so evil as did need a lavatory But if Baptism hath an influence upon sins in the succeeding portions of our life then it is certain that their being presently innocent does not hinder and ought not to retard the Sacrament and therefore Tertullian's Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum what need Innocents hasten to the remission of sins is soon answered It is true they need not in respect of any actual sins for so they are innocent but in respect of the evils of their nature derived from their original and in respect of future sins in the whole state of their life it is necessary they be put into a state of pardon before they sin because some sin early some sin later and therefore unless they be baptized so early as to prevent the first sins they may chance dye in a sin to the pardon of which they have yet derived no title from Christ 6. The next great effect of Baptism which children can have is the Spirit of Sanctification and if they can be baptized with Water and the Spirit it will be sacriledge to rob them of so holy treasures And concerning this although it be with them as S. Paul sayes of Heirs The heir so long as he is a childe differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all and children although they receive the Spirit of Promise and the Spirit of Grace yet in respect of actual exercise they differ not from them that have them not at all yet this hindres not but they may have them For as the reasonable soul and all its faculties are in children Will and Vnderstanding Passions and Powers of Attraction and Propulsion yet these faculties do not operate or come abroad till time and art observation and experience have drawn them forth into action so may the Spirit of Grace the principle of Christian life be infused and yet lye without action till in its own day it is drawn forth For in every Christian there are three parts concurring to his integral constitution Body and Soul and Spirit and all these have their proper activities and times but every one in his own order first that which is natural then that which is spiritual And as Aristotle said A man first lives the life of a plant then of a beast and lastly of a man is true in this sense and the more spiritual the principle is the longer it is before it operates because more things concur to spiritual actions then to natural and these are necessary and therefore first the other are perfect and therefore last And who is he that so well understands the Philosophy of this third principle of a Christians life the Spirit as to know how or when it is infused and how it operates in all its periods and what it is in its beeing and proper nature and whether it be like the soul or like the faculty or like a habit or how or to what purposes God in all varieties does dispense it These are secrets which none but bold people use to decree and build propositions upon their own dreams That which is certain is that The Spirit is the principle of a new life or a new birth That Baptism is the laver of this new birth That it is the seed of God and may lye long in the furrows before it springs up That from the faculty to the act the passage is not alwayes sudden and quick That the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance that is of Resurrection to eternal life which inheritance because children we hope shal have they cannot be denied to have its Seal and Earnest that is if they shall have all they are not to be denyed a part That children have some effects of the Spirit and therefore do receive it and are baptized with the Spirit and therefore may with Water which thing is therefore true and evident because some children are sanctified as Jeremy and the Baptist and therefore all may And because all signification of persons is an effect of the holy Ghost there is no peradventure but they that can be sanctified by God can in that capacity receive the holy Ghost and all the ground of dissenting here is onely upon a mistake because Infants do no act of holiness they suppose them incapable of the grace of Sanctification Now Sanctification of children is their adoption to the inheritance of sons their presentation to Christ their consignation to Christs service and to Resurrection their being put into a possibility of being saved their restitution to Gods favour which naturally that is as our nature is depraved and punished they could not have And in short the case is this Original Righteousness was in Adam after the manner of nature but it was an act or effect of grace and by it men were not made but born righteous the inferior faculties obeyed the superior the minde was whole and right and conformable to the Divine Image the Reason and the Will alwayes concurring the Will
redeemed and washed with the blood of the Holy Lamb who was slain for all from the beginning of the world After all this it is not inconsiderable that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments which is observeable in many instances She appointed what persons she pleased and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery The Apostles first dispensed all things and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the word of God and prayer and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to baptize when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch to the work of preaching and greater ministeries and accounted that act of the Church the act of Christ saying Christ sent mee not to baptize but to preach the Gospel they used various forms in the ministration of Baptism sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ sometimes expressely invocating the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity one while I baptize thee as in the Latine Church but in Greek Let the servant of Christ be Baptized and in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms in most things hath often changed them as in absolution excommunication and sometimes they baptized people upon their profession of repentance and then taught them as it hapned to the Jaylor and all his family in whose case there was no explicit faith afore hand in the mysteries of Religion so far as appears and yet he and not onely he but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the earthquake was terrible and the fear was pregnant upon them this upon their Masters account as it is likely but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous faith and a new begun repentance * They baptized in rivers or in lavatories by dipping or by sprinkling for so we finde that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern Countries according to the prophecy of Isaiah So shall he sprinkle many Nations according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling and it is fairly relative to the mystery to the sprinkling with the blood of Christ and the watering of the furrows of our souls with the dew of heaven to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto holinesse The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times sometimes but once some Churches use fire in their baptisms so do the Ethiopians and the custome was antient in some places And so in the other Sacrament sometimes she stood and sometimes kneeled and sometimes received it in the mouth and sometimes in the hand one while in leavened another while in unleavened bread sometimes the wine and water were mingled sometimes they were pure and they admitted some persons to it sometimes which at other times she rejected sometimes the Consecration was made by one forme sometimes by another and to conclude sometimes it was given to Infants sometimes not and she had power so to do for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or imployed in the nature and in the end of the institution the Church had power to alter the particulars as was most expedient or conducing to edification and although the after ages of the Church which refused to communicate Infants have found some little things against the lawfulnesse and those ages that used it found out some pretences for its necessity yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities so in all things they followed Christ Certainly there is infinitely more reason why Infants may be communicated then why they may not be baptized And that this discourse may revert to its first intention although there is no record extant of any Church in the world that from the Apostles dayes inclusively to this very day ever refused to baptize their children yet if they had upon any present reason they might also change their practise when the reason should be changed and therefore if there were nothing els in it yet the universal practise of all Churches in all ages is abundantly sufficient to determine us and to legitimate the practise since Christ hath not forbidden it It is sufficient confutation to disagreeing people to use the words of S. Paul we have no such custome nor the Churches of God to suffer children to be strangers from the Covenant of Promise till they shall enter into it as Jews or Turks may enter that is by choise and disputation But although this alone to modest and obedient that is to Christian Spirits be sufficient yet this is more then the question did need It can stand upon its proper foundation Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat anathema est He that refuseth to baptize his Infants shall be in danger of the Councel The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Iesus who in thy own person wert pleased to sanctify the waters of baptism and by thy institution and commandment didst make them effectual to excellent purposes of grace and remedy be pleased to verify the holy effects of baptism to me and all thy servants whose names are dedicated to thee in an early and timely presentation and enable us with thy grace to verify all our promises by which we were bound then when thou didst first make us thy own portion and relatives in the consummation of a holy covenant O be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour in which thou didst plant us by thy grace and admit us by the gates of baptism and let that Spirit which moved upon those holy waters never be absent from us but call upon us and invite us by a perpetual argument and daily solicitations and inducements to holiness that we may never return to the filthiness of sin bnt by the answer of a good conscience may please thee and glorify thy name and doe honour to thy religion and institution in this world and may receive the blessings and the rewards of it in the world to come being presented to thee pure and spotless in the day of thy power when thou shalt lead thy Church to a Kingdome and endless glories Amen The End §. 1. §. 2. Joh. 4. 14. §. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 21. §. 4. §. 5. Vmbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo S. Ambr. §. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 2. §. 7. §. 8. a Tertull. de praescrip. c. 40. b scholiast. in Ju. sat 2. l. 2. c O nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli stumineâ posse putatis aquâ §. 9. John 4. 1. §. 10. Audi quid Scripturae doceant Johannis baptisma non tam peccata dimisit quà m baptisma poenitentiae fuit in peccatorum remissionem idque in futuram remissionē quae esset postea per sanctificationem