them of those inward and spiritual Graces which those sacred Offices were intended to procure or convey Which how great a commendation it is of our Vnion to that Body and consequently of that Baptism by which it was made will need no other proof than the Scripture's assuring us that Christ is the Saviour (h) Eph. 5.23 of that Body and the promises it makes to those Prayers (i) Matt. 18.19 20. that are made by it and to that Eucharist (k) Matt. 26.26 c. which is administred in it The purport of those promises being no other than the granting what is asked by it and particularly all those benefits which Christ's Body and Blood were intended for the procuring of And if these be as no doubt they are the consequences of our union to the Church by Baptism yea so far as I have elsewhere (l) Expl. the Creed Art of The forgiveness sins shewn that they are not ordinarily to be attained out of it That very Union may not improperly be stil'd one of its inward and spiritual Graces because leading to those that are most strictly such and indeed the only ordinary means of obtaining them PART VIII Of the Profession that is made by the Baptized person The Contents The things signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized brought under consideration and shewn from several former discourses which are also pointed to to be an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and particularly of the Trinity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws Our resolution of acting agreeably to the Laws of Christianity more particularly consider'd and the Profession thereof shewn by several Arguments to be the intendment of the Christian Baptism What the measure of that conformity is which we profess to pay to the Laws of Christianity and what are the consequences of the Violation of that Profession HAving thus consider'd the things signified by Baptism on the part of God and Christ best known by the name of its inward and spiritual Graces It remains that I give the like account of the things signified by it on the part of the baptiz'd or the things the baptized person maketh Profession of by it Which as was before observ'd are an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws That something is signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized as well as on the part of God and Christ is evident from what was before said * Of the Sacrament in general Part 2. concerning the nature of a Sacrament in the general and Baptism's †Ibid. relating as well to something to be perform'd by the baptiz'd as to those divine Graces or priviledges which we expect from the other That the things before mentioned are the things thus signified by it hath also been elsewhere * Expl. of the Apostles Creed declar'd and so that it would not be difficult for a diligent Reader to satisfie himself from thence But because what I have said concerning them lies dispersedly in my former Discourses and would therefore require more pains than I ought to impose upon my Reader to find it out and apply it to the present Argument I will here though very briefly consider them anew and if not which would be too tedious repeat all that I have said concerning them yet point him as I go to the particular places from whence they may be fetch'd That Abrenunciation of sin is one of the things signified by Baptism is not only evident from the manner of administring it in the Primitive times and which together with the form of their Abrenunciation and our own are set down in my account of the Preliminary questions and answers of the Catechism but also from the general tenour of that Religion which Baptism is an initiation into That requiring the renouncing of all sin and wickedness and therefore supposing the baptized person to do so when he takes that Religion upon him For which cause as an express Abrenunciation was heretofore requir'd and continues so to be to this very day So it was signified as by other Rites and particularly by the baptized persons putting off his cloaths in order to his Baptism as putting off together with them the Old Man and his deeds so by the Rite of Baptism it self He who submits to that implying thereby his looking upon sin as a Moral impurity and which therefore for the future he would not have any thing to do with The second thing signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized is his present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity more especially of the Doctrine of the Trinity As is evident from that Baptism's being commanded by our Saviour to be made in or into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost For to be baptiz'd into the name of those persons importing the owning of those persons as our Masters (a) Expl. of the Creed Art I believe in the Holy Ghost and our selves as the Disciples of them To be so baptized moreover importing the owning of those persons as alike (b) Ibid. Masters of us and consequently because the Father cannot be own'd in any lower relation as partakers of the same divine Nature and Authority Lastly to be so baptiz'd importing the owning of them in particular by a belief of the Christian Doctrine that being the most signal instance of that Discipleship we receive by it The belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and of the Trinity in particular must be look'd upon as signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized and those baptized ones consequently as making profession of that belief by it For which cause as the rule of Faith or the Creed (c) Introd concerning Catechising c. was given to those to learn who were willing to be initiated into Christianity so they were particularly interrogated (d) Expl. of the Prel Quest and Answers as to their belief of the Articles thereof and then and not till then baptiz'd into it and the priviledges thereof The third and last thing signified on the part of the baptized is a resolution for the time to come to continue in the belief of Christianity and act agreeably to its Laws Both which will receive a sufficient confirmation from S. Peter's affirming Baptism to be the Answer or stipulation of a good conscience toward God and from what I have elsewhere (e) Ibid. said concerning it For as it is evident from thence that Baptism signifies on the part of the baptized a stipulation or promise of somewhat to be done by him So it will not be difficult to inferr from thence that it signifies also a stipulation or promise to continue in that belief of Christianity into which he
as a means whereby we receive the same and as a pledge to assure us thereof Question How many parts are there in a Sacrament Answer Two the outward visible sign and the inward spiritual grace Question What is the outward visible sign or form in Baptism Answer Water wherein the person is baptized In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Question What is the inward and spiritual grace Answer A death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath we are hereby made the children of grace Question What is required of persons to be baptized Answer Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that Sacrament Question Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them Answer Because they promise them both by their Sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform Question Why was the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ordained Answer For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ and of the benefits which we receive thereby Question What is the outward part or sign of the Lord's Supper Answer Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received Question What is the inward part or thing signified Answer The body and blood of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper Question What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby Answer The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ as our bodies are by the bread and wine Question What is required of them who come to the Lord's Supper Answer To examine themselves whether they repent them truly of their former sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new life have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ with a thankful remembrance of his death and be in charity with all men OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM In Pursuance of an EXPLICATION OF THE CATECHISM OF THE Church of England BY GABRIEL TOWERSON D.D. and Rector of Welwynne in Hartfordshire Imprimatur Ex Aedib Lamb. Apr. 10. 1686. Jo. Battely RRmo P. ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris Domesticis LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE Right Reverend FATHER in GOD FRANCIS Lord Bishop of ELY AND LORD ALMONER TO His Majesty My Lord YOUR Lordship 's favourable acceptance of my Discourse of the Sacraments in General with the desire I have if it may be to put an end to the whole hath prompted me to make the more hast to present your Lordship and the World with this of Baptism in particular Two things there are in it which I thought my self most concern'd to clear and which therefore I have employ'd all requisite diligence on the Doctrine of Original Sin and Infant-Baptism The former being in my opinion the foundation of Christianity the latter of our interest in it For if there be no such thing as Original Sin I do not see but some persons heretofore might and may here after live with such exactness as not at all to stand in need of a Saviour And I see as little if Infant-Baptism be null what interest any of us can have in him according to the ordinary dispensation of the Gospel who have for the most part been baptized in our Infancy or at least have been baptized by those that were Throughout the whole Treatise I have endeavour'd to retrive the antient notion of Baptism to shew what advantages are annexed to it and what duties it either involves or obligeth to To either of which if I have given any light or strength I shall hope I have done some small service to the Church and which your Lordship in particular will take in good part from Your Lordship's Most Obliged Most Obedient and Most humble Servant GABRIEL TOWERSON Wellwyne Aug. 23. 1686. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART Of the Rite of Baptism among the Heathen and the Jews THe Heathen themselves not without the knowledge of another World and of the insufficiency of natural Religion to bring them to the happiness thereof Occasion taken by them from thence to enquire after other ways of obtaining it and by the Devil to suggest the mysteries of their respective Deities as the only proper means of compassing it Those mysteries every where initiated into by the Rite of Baptism partly through Men's consciousness of their past sins and which they judged it but meet they should be some way purged from and partly through the policy of the Devil who thereby thought to procure the greater veneration to them That as it was a Rite which was in use among God's own people so naturally apt to represent to Mens minds their passing from a sinful to a holy Estate Of what Service the Heathens use of this Rite is toward the commendation of the Christians Baptism and a transition from thence to the use of it among the Jews Which is not only prov'd at large out of the Jewish Writings and several particulars of that Baptism remark'd but that usage farther confirm'd by several concurring proofs such as is in particular the no appearance there is otherwise of any initiation of the Jewish Women the Baptizing of the whole Nation in the Cloud and in the Sea and a remarkable allusion to it in our Saviour's Discourse to Nicodemus The silence of the Old Testament concerning that Rite shewn to be of no force because though it take notice of the first Jews being under the Cloud and passing through the Red Sea yet it takes no notice at all of their being Baptized in them or of their Eating and Drinking that spiritual Repast whereof S. Paul speaketh The Baptism of Christians copied by our Saviour from that of the Jews and may therefore where it appears not that he hath made an alteration receive an elucidation from it pag. 1. The Contents of the Second Part. Of the Baptism of the Christians and the Institution of it THe Institution of the Christian Baptism more antient than the Command for it in S. Matthew 28.19 though not as to the generality of the World nor it may be as to the like explicit Profession of the Trinity As is made appear from Christ or his Disciples baptizing in Judea not long after his own Baptism by S. John Enquiry thereupon made whether it were not yet more antient yea as antient as Christ's execution of his Prophetical Office Which is rendred probable from our Saviours making Disciples before and the equal reason there appears to have been for his making them after the same manner with those of Judea From Christ's representing to Nicodemus the necessity of being born again of water and the spirit which is shewn at large to be meant of a true and proper Baptism As
like that they might be in a capacity of obtaining it As indeed otherwise what force is there in the reason alledg'd for the suffering and no way forbidding young Children to come unto him For they who have in purpose of heart what the other have only naturally may both be invited to tend toward and be possess'd of the Kingdom of Heaven though the other be no way brought to Christ nor receive any blessing from him In as much as their humility and innocency is the result of God's spirit and of their own will and consequently more likely to be acceptable whereas the other 's is only the result of their constitution and age And I cannot therefore but think that the true reason of our Saviour's making use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or such instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or these for of such saith our Saviour is the Kingdom of heaven was not in the least to exclude Children from having a right to the Kingdom of Heaven as who alone were directly and immediately concern'd in the present Argument But to let the World know at the same time * Aret. in Matt. 19.13 c. Nec juvat quod aliqui hic urgent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talium non horum Nam communem ostendit modum justificationis c. Amplius igitur aliquid dicere voluit bos pueros vitae haeredes esse ad illorum similitudinem nobis etiam redeundum esse that elder men ought to put on the properties of Children to make them partakers of it As he afterward (a) Mark 10.15 more expresly signifies when he tells them that whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child he shall not enter therein Which suppos'd a way is opened for the inferring of that Baptism of Infants which this passage both now and of old was made use of to evince For it appearing from the premises that Infants have a right to the Kingdom of Heaven and upon and by vertue of that right to be brought to Christ also They must consequently have a right also to those means which are by the same Christ appointed to put them into the possession of his Kingdom Which Baptism certainly being and so that ordinarily at least none can enter into that Kingdom without (b) Joh. 3.5 being born again by it it cannot without injustice be withheld from those Children to whom the other doth appertain Neither will it avail to say though the Objection be not to be despis'd that by this rule our Saviour should either himself have baptiz'd or order'd his Disciples to baptize those Children that were now brought unto him for his blessing For beside that one Argument will not solve another and much less hinder the matter thereof from being true or conclusive There might be reason enough though the premises be allow'd for our Saviour's not baptizing or requiring his Disciples to baptize those Children who were now brought unto him for his blessing Partly upon the account of the incompetency of those that brought them and who being not Disciples themselves but as is probable of the multitude (c) Mark 10.1 Matt. 19.2 that followed him could not claim from our Saviour nor he so regularly bestow Baptism upon their Children And partly to let the World see that he was not ti'd to any methods himself in the dispensing of the graces of that Kingdom For that our Saviour by that blessing which he gave them gave those Children rem Sacramenti or the Graces of Baptism and so shew'd yet more the title Children have to it cannot well be doubted of by any who shall consider how zealous he was for their being brought to him as that too upon the account of the title they had to the Kingdom of Heaven For considering that zeal of his and the ground of it what can be more reasonable than to think that our Saviour agreeably thereto did by his blessing conferr upon them that Evangelical regeneration which was to fit them for the Kingdom of Heaven and without which considering the impurity of their nature and the necessity of being thus born anew they could not regularly obtain it And I have been the more particular in deducing and pressing the present argument Partly because led thereto by the meer force of the Text it self and the Authority of the Church that imployed it till by accident I fell upon those things I have before quoted out of Aretius And partly because I think it a better service to the Church of God to strengthen one old Argument than devise many new ones Such a course procuring the more respect to the Church's both opinion and practice as shewing it to proceed upon substantial Arguments and such as in themselves are not lightly to be refus'd My second Argument for the Baptism of Infants shall be taken from that holiness which S. Paul (d) 1 Cor. 7.14 attributes to the Children of Christian Parents yea where only one of them is such upon the account of their descent from them For S. Paul having before persuaded the believing party to continue with the unbelieving one supposing that unbelieving one to be as willing to continue with the believer as a motive to the doing of it alledgeth that the unbelieving party is sanctified by the believing and proves that sanctification again by the holiness of the Children that come from them as which otherwise those Children could not have in them but the contrary Now I demand what that holiness is which S. Paul supposeth to be the property of those who come from such a sanctified couple that is to say whether an inward holiness or an outward one If they who would avoid the force of this Text as to the Baptism of Infants say an inward holiness they say more than we desire or can with truth be affirmed because though Original Sin be traduc'd from the Parents yet inward holiness is not as being the product of the Spirit of God and his instrument Baptism But if they do however attribute such a holiness to those Children they say enough to evince that Baptism ought not to be deny'd to them For who as S. Peter spake (e) Acts 10.47 upon another occasion can forbid the water of Baptism to those who have receiv'd the Holy Ghost as to be sure all that are internally holy have It remains therefore that if the Children of such matches be not internally holy they are externally so and that external holiness therefore if it may be to be investigated by us Now I demand First what external holiness can be imagin'd in those Children but such by which they come to belong to God in a more peculiar manner than the Children of other matches do This being the nature of all things that are externally holy whether by the voluntary consecration of men or the Institution or choice of God I demand secondly