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 p. 249 The Contents of the Ninth Part. Of the right Administration of Baptism AFter a short account of the Foundation of the Baptismal relation and reference made to those places from which a larger one may be fetch'd Enquiry is made touching the right Administration of Baptism as therein again First Whether Baptism ought expresly to be made in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Secondly whether Schismaticks and Hereticks are valid Administratours of it Thirdly to what and what kind of persons it ought to be administred Fourthly Whether it may be repeated The two first of these spoken to here and first Whether Baptism ought to be expresly administred in the form propos'd Which is not only shewn to be under obligation from the express words of the Institution but answer made to those Texts which seem to intimate it to be enough to baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus only The Baptism of Schismaticks and Hereticks more largely shewn to be valid unless where they baptize into a counterfeit Faith and the several objections against it answer'd p. 265 The Contents of the Tenth Part. Of the Baptism of those of riper Years TO what and what kind of persons Baptism ought to be administred Which as to those of riper years is shewn to be unto all that come duly qualified for it What those qualifications are upon that account enquir'd into and Repentance and Faith shewn from the Scripture as well as from our own Catechism to be they That Repentance and Faith more particularly considered the definitions given of them by our Church explain'd and established The former whereof is effected by shewing what Repentance doth presuppose what it imports and to what it doth naturally dispose us The latter by shewing what those promises are which by the Catechism are made the object of our Faith or Belief what that Belief of them doth presuppose what is meant by a stedfast Belief of them and what evidence there is of that being the Faith or Belief requir'd to the receiving of Baptism p. 287 The Contents of the Eleventh Part. Of the Baptism of Infants WHat ground infant-Infant-Baptism hath in Scripture and particularly in what it suggests concerning Christ's commanding his Disciples to suffer little Children to come unto him S. Paul's giving the Children of the faithful the title of Holy and the Circumcision of Infants The concurrence of Antiquity therein with the Doctrine of the Scripture and that concurrence farther strengthned by the Pelagians so freely admitting of what was urg'd against them from thence A brief account of that remission and regeneration which Infants acquire by Baptism and a more large consideration of the Objections that are made against it More particularly of what is urg'd against the Regeneration of Infants in Baptism or their ability to answer what is prerequir'd to it on the part of persons to be baptiz'd or is to be performed by them in the reception of it Where the Regeneration of Infants is more largely considered and what is promis'd for them by others shewn to be both reasonable and sufficient p. 309 The Contents of the Twelfth Part. Whether Baptism may be repeated WHat the true state of the present question is and that it is not founded in any suppos'd illegitimateness of the former Baptism but upon supposition of the baptized persons either not having before had or forfeited the regeneration of it or fallen off from that Religion to which it doth belong Whereupon enquiry is made whether if such persons repent and return they ought to be baptiz'd anew or received into the Church without What there is to perswade the repeating of Baptism and what the Church hath alledg'd against it The Churches arguments from Eph. 4.4 and John 13.10 proposed but wav'd The Churches opinion more firmly established in the no direction there is in Scripture for re-baptization in those cases but rather the contrary and in the no necessity there is of it The Arguments for rebaptization answer'd p. 365 ERRATA In the Title over the Pages PAg. 253. for Baptism r. Baptized TEXT Pag. 57. l. 16. after do add not p. 134. l. 11. after of add that p. 228. l. 17. corruption p. 244. l. pen. embodied p. 262. l. 22. violaters p. 306. l. 14. for boyl r. bogle p. 324. l. 7. for force r. face p. 330. l. 24. faithful p. 354. l. 18. r. as was Margent Pag. 6. l. penult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 7. l. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 16. l. 1 2. Exo. 16.32 p. 61. l. 8. for Sacramentum r. incrementa p. 235. l. antep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. l. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 291. l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 335. l. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM PART I. Of the Rite of Baptism among the HEATHEN and the JEWS The Contents 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
saved from everlasting damnation by Christ And it is not only saith another (n) Hom. of Faith. the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but it is also a sure trust and considence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a stedfast hope of all good things to be receiv'd at God's hands In fine saith the same (o) Ibid. Homily the very sure lively Christian faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in holy Scripture but also to have an earnest trust and confidence in God c. Which suppos'd as we may because we can have no more Authentick interpretation of it to be the sense of the belief here intended it will not be difficult to shew what our Catechism means by a stedfast one For considering the belief of these Promises as an Assent of the mind to them so a stedfast belief will imply that which is free from all doubts and which the mind of man gives to those Promises without any the least fear of their being any Collusion in them Which the mind of man may well give considering whose those Promises are and that they have both God and Christ for the Authors of them On the other side if we consider the belief intended as including in it also an affiance or trust and by vertue of which the heart or will is prompted to desire as well as believe the matter of those Promises and acquiesce in those Promises for the attaining of it So this stedfast belief will also imply such a one as is firmly rooted in the heart or will and can no more be rooted out of it by the force of temptations than the other by doubts or scruples And indeed as I do not see how any other belief than that can answer such glorious promises as are made to us in the Sacrament of Baptism so I see as little reason to doubt IV. What evidence there is of that being the Faith or belief which is pre-requir'd by Christianity to the receiving of it For though S. Luke may seem to intimate by the account he gives of the Baptism of the Samaritans (p) Acts 8.12 that they were baptiz'd upon a simple belief of what Philip preach'd concerning the things of the Kingdom of God Yet he doth much more clearly intimate afterward that Christianity requir'd another sort of belief and such as was accompani'd with an adherence of the will unto them He making it the condition of the Eunuch's Baptism afterward that he should believe with all his heart (q) Acts 8.37 Which is an expression that in the language of the Scripture referrs rather to the will and affections than to the understanding but however cannot well be thought not to include them there where the believing with all the heart is requir'd And indeed as I do not see considering the Doctrine of our First Reformers why this notion of Faith should be so exploded as it seems to me lately to have been As I do much less see why men should so boyle at that Justification which was wont to be attributed in an especial manner to it So if I live to finish the work I am now upon I will in a Comment upon the Epistle to the Philippians which I have almost gather'd sufficient materials for endeavour to clear both the one and the other that men may neither take occasion from thence to discard good works as unnecessary nor yet stay themselves upon any other than the promises of Christ and on which the holiest men upon earth when they have been approaching near God's tribunal have found themselves oblig'd to cast themselves In the mean time a little to repress the youthful heats of those who can hardly forbear smiling at such antiquated notions I will set before them the advice which was order'd to be given to sick persons when good works to be sure were not without their just repute It is among the Interrogatories which are said (r) Field of the Church Append. to the 3d. Book pa. 303. to have been prescrib'd by Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury and particularly after that which prompts the Priest to ask Dost thou believe that thou canst not be sav'd but by the death of Christ and the sick persons Answer that he did so Go too therefore as the Priest was taught to proceed and whilst thy soul remaineth in thee place thy confidence in this death alone and in no other thing commit thy self wholly to it cover thy self wholly with it immerse fix and wrap thy self wholly in it And if the Lord God will judge thee say I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment otherwise I contend not with thee And if he say that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins If he say to thee thou hast deserv'd damnation say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my evil deserts and I offer the same death for that merit which I ought to have had and have not If he continue as yet to say that he is angry with thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy displeasure Words which shew what kind of Faith was sometime thought to be a justfying one and what stress was laid upon it before ever Fanaticism or any thing of that nature was heard of in the World. PART XI Of the Baptism of Infants The Contents What ground infant-Infant-Baptism hath in Scripture and particularly in what it suggests concerning Christ's commanding his Disciples to suffer little Children to come unto him S. Paul's giving the Children of the faithful the title of Holy and the Circumcision of Infants The concurrence of Antiquity therein with the Doctrine of the Scripture and that concurrence farther strengthned by the Pelagians so freely admitting of what was urg'd against them from thence A brief account of that remission and regeneration which Infants acquire by Baptism and a more large consideration of the Objections that are made against it More particularly of what is urg'd against the Regeneration of Infants in Baptism or their ability to answer what is pre-requir'd to it on the part of persons to be baptiz'd or is to be performed by them in the reception of it Where the Regeneration of Infants is more largely considered and what is promis'd for them by others shewn to be both reasonable and sufficient FRom the Baptism of those of riper years Question Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them Answer Because they promise them both by their sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform pass we to that of Infants or Children the only Baptism upon the matter now celebrated and therefore so much the more carefully to be clear'd and establish'd In order whereunto I will enquire I. What
it in a rational way What is spoken of their regeneration is not to be drawn into example here unless the same Scripture did any where intimate that there was no other way of regeneration than that or it could not be otherwise produced Which beside the affront it offers to the omnipotency of God's spirit and which even in men must be supposed to have the chiefest stroke will need no other confutation than Gods creating man at first after his own image without any concurrence of his and producing in our Saviour even in his conception that perfect holiness which was in him For why may not God produce in an Infant that imperfect regeneration whereof we speak as well as he did that more perfect Righteousness and true Holiness wherewith our first Parents were created or that more excellent as well as more durable one which he did in our Saviour from the very beginning and which the Scripture it self attributes to the Holy Ghost's overshadowing his Mother's Womb But it may be though Infants are not incapable of regeneration and so far forth cannot with reason be debarr'd the Sacrament of it Yet there is evidence enough upon the postfact that no such thing is collated in their Baptism and that Baptism of theirs therefore not to be look'd upon as a legitimate one For if the regeneration we speak of were collated in the Baptism of Infants it would because all Infants are alike qualifi'd for that Sacrament be collated in some measure upon all of them which yet the future behaviour of many of them doth render justly questionable Many of them being untoward enough when they first come of years though advantaged by a sutable education and others as before said taken away early from their Christian Parents and both educated in a contrary Religion and made zealous Proselytes of it Which things how they should be consistent with that regeneration whereof we speak is at least very difficult to apprehend And possibly these two things have stuck more with considering men than most of the other Arguments that have been brought against Infant Baptism and have perhaps given as much trouble to all those who have duly consider'd them But whether they are in truth of that force which they seem to be of may well be doubted by those who shall consider this regeneration as the state of Infants requires or at least makes it reasonable enough to do I mean as a weak and imperfect thing and rather as the seed of a more strong and perfect regeneration than a throughly form'd and well setled one For so if we conceive of it we shall find no great difficulty to apprehend first that where there is not only nothing of a Christian education to excite and improve it but a contrary one from the very beginning and such a one in particular as Christian Children have from the Turks So I say it will not be difficult to apprehend but it may be perfectly overwhelm'd and choaked by it As that seed in the Parable was that was sown among Thorns or as that may be suppos'd to be that is covered over with rubbish and hindred by it from sprouting forth And though I cannot say the same of the regeneration of such persons as have afterwards had a Christian and it may be a careful education to excite it for here one would think it should every where more forcibly exert it self yet this I may which will be of equal force that in that case it may equally fail for want of those persons exciting it in whom that seed is sown or of their answering by their care and endeavour that education which is made use of in order to it For Baptism as hath been often said being in the nature of a stipulation or Contract where somewhat is to be perform'd by the party Baptized as soon as he is in a capacity to do it as well as by him with whom the contract is made No wonder if when the baptized person comes to be in a capacity to perform his part and doth not he with whom the Contract is made do first withdraw his blessing from that which he hath before sown in him and afterward the seed it self For in either of these cases we cannot expect such indications or effects of the Baptismal regeneration as otherwise we might and as do actually shew themselves in many of those who have been made partakers of it It may be enough that God hath furnish'd such persons with a regeneration which during their minority will qualifie them for and secure them to his Kingdom and a regeneration too which if well improv'd will grow into a more complete and effectual one and in fine bring them to a due holiness and unto God. If the baptized persons will when they are in a capacity to do better neglect to excite it or will oppose it they must thank themselves if they miscarry and not lay the blame upon any failure on Christ's part and much less deny his having conferred it on them The third and last great Objection against the Baptism of Infants is their being incapable of answering what is prerequired to it on the part of the persons that are to be baptized or is to be performed by them in the receiving of it Which incapacity they argue as to the former of these from the Scripture's pre-requiring Faith and Repentance to it as the latter from that stipulation which Baptism involves and which Infants are equally incapacitated to make The Answer which our Catechism makes to these difficulties or at least to the former is that they promise them both by their sureties which promise when they come to Age themselves are bound to perform And possibly this Answer might be better digested than it is if the minds of those who argue against Infant-Baptism were more free and unprejudic'd than they commonly appear to be Because first what is urg'd against Infant-Baptism upon the account of its being a stipulation or Contract is equally of force against the Circumcision of Infants because that was equally a Covenant or rather a sign of it and a means of entring into it Which notwithstanding the Infants of Abraham's posterity were by the Command of God himself admitted to it and thereupon reckon'd as in Covenant with him Now if the Infants of Abraham's posterity were by the Command of God admitted into Covenant with him What should hinder the Infants of Christians from Covenanting in like manner with him and so far forth from being admitted to the participation of that Sacrament which is a sign of the same gracious Covenant and a means of entring into it Again Secondly though Infants cannot in strictness Covenant with God because neither having reason enough to apprehend the terms of it nor will to determine themselves to the performance of them Yet as they may by favour be admitted to a partnership in a Covenant and where God or Christ is the person with whom they contract
the Nature of every Man that is naturally engendered of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil The nature of that corruption more particularly enquir'd into and shewn by probable Arguments to be no other than a Privation of a Supernatural Grace That there is such a thing as we have before described evidenced at large from the Scripture and that evidence farther strengthned by the experience we have of its effects and the acknowledgments of the wiser Heathen Enquiry next made from whence it had its beginning which is shewn to have been not from any evil Spirit or Daemon the pravity of matter or the evil habits the Soul contracted in a praeexistent state but from the pravity of our first Parents This last at large confirm'd out of the Doctrine of the Scripture and followed by some light reflections upon the means by which it is conveyed A more just account from the Scripture of its being truly and properly a sin partly from its having the title of a sin but more especially from its being represented as such upon the account of our Obligation to the contrary A consideration of those Objections which are commonly made against the Doctrine of Original Sin Which are shewn either not to be of that force whereof they are esteem'd or however not to be a sufficient bar to what the Scripture hath declar'd concerning it p. 89 The Contents of the Fourth Part. Of the things signified by Baptism on the part of God or its inward and spiritual Grace THE things signified by Baptism are either more general or particular More general as that Covenant of Grace which passeth between God and Man and that body of Men which enter into Covenant with him More particular what the same God doth by vertue of that Covenant oblige himself to bestow upon the Baptized and what those Baptized ones do on their part undertake to perform These latter ones proposed to be considered and entrance made with the consideration of what God obligeth himself to bestow upon the Baptized called by the Church An inward and spiritual Grace Which inward and spiritual Grace is shewn to be of two sorts to wit such as tend more immediately to our spiritual and eternal welfare or such as only qualifie us for those Graces that do so To the former sort are reckon'd that inward and spiritual Grace which tends to free us from the guilt of sin called by the Church forgiveness of sin That which tends to free us from the pollution of sin called by our Catechism A death unto it And that which tends to introduce the contrary purity and hath the name of a New birth unto righteousness To the latter sort is reckoned our union to that Body of which Christ Jesus is the Head and by means whereof he dispenseth the former Graces to us Each of these resum'd and considered in their order and shewn to be what they are usually stil'd the inward and spiritual Graces of Baptism or the things signified by the outward visible Sign thereof p. 185 The Contents of the Fifth Part. Of Forgiveness of sin by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to its inward and spiritual Grace and particularly to Forgiveness of sin Which is either that of a means fitted by God to convey it or of a pledge to assure the Baptized person of it The former of these relations more particularly considered as that too with respect to Forgiveness of Sin in the general or the Forgiveness of all Sin whatsoever and Original Sin in particular As to the former whereof is alledged first the Scriptures calling upon Men to be Baptiz'd for the remission or forgiveness of sin Secondly the Church's making that Forgiveness a part of her Belief and Doctrine Thirdly the agreeing opinions or practices of those who were either unsound members of it or Separatists from it And Fourthly the Calumnies of its enemies The like evidence made of the latter from the Scripture's proposing Baptism and its Forgiveness as a remedy against the greatest guilts and in special against that wrath which we are Children of by Nature From the premises is shewn that the sign of Baptism is a pledge to assure the Baptized of Forgiveness as well as a means fitted by God for the conveying of it p. 203 The Contents of the Sixth Part. Of Mortification of sin and Regeneration by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to such inward and spiritual Graces as tend to free us from the pollution of sin or introduce the contrary purity And that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby they are convey'd This evidenced as to the former even our death unto sin which is also explain'd from such Texts of Scripture as make mention of our being baptiz'd into it and buried by Baptism in it or from such as describe us as cleansed by the washing of it The like evidenc'd from the same Scripture concerning the latter even our new birth unto righteousness As that again farther clear'd as to this particular by the consentient Doctrine and practice of the Church by the opinion the Jews had of that Baptism which was a Type and exemplar of ours and the expressions of the Heathen concerning it The Doctrine of the Church more largely insisted upon and exemplified from Justin Martyr Tertullian and S. Cyprian p. 217 The Contents of the Seventh Part. Of our Union to the Church by Baptism OF the relation of the sign of Baptism to our Vnion to the Church and that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby that Vnion is made This evidenc'd in the first place from the declarations of the Scripture more particularly from its affirming all Christians to be baptiz'd into that Body as those who were first baptiz'd after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles to have been thereby added to their company and made partakers with the rest in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship in breaking of Bread and in Prayers The like evidence of the same Union to the Church by Baptism from the declarations of the Church it self and the consequences of that Vnion shewn to be such as to make that also to be accounted one of the inward and spiritual Graces of that Baptism by which it is made p. 237 The Contents of the Eighth Part. Of the Profession that is made by the Baptized Person THE things signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized brought under consideration and shewn from several former discourses which are also pointed to to be an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and particularly of the Trinity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws Our resolution of acting agreeably to the Laws of Christianity more particularly consider'd and the Profession thereof shewn by several
Now though it be hard to find any one Text of Scripture where that forgiveness whereof we speak is expresly attributed to Baptism Yet will it not be difficult to deduce it from that (q) Eph. 2.1 c. which I have before shewn to entreat of our becoming the children of wrath by nature as well as by the wickedness of our conversations For opposing to the corruption or rather deadness which accrues by both the quickning we have together with Christ and which quickning he elsewhere (r) Col. 2.12 as expresly affirms to be accomplished in us by Baptism Affirming moreover that quickning to bring salvation (ſ) Eph. 2 5-8 and peace (t) Eph. 14-17 and reconciliation (u) Eph. 16. for so he discourseth of it in the following Verses of that Chapter he must consequently make that quickning and the means of it to tend to the forgiveness of both and particularly of natural corruption Because as that quickning is by him oppos'd to both so it must in this particular be look'd upon as more peculiarly opposed to the latter because that is more peculiarly affirm'd to make Men the Children of wrath and vengeance Such evidence there is of the outward visible sign of Baptism being a means fitted by God to convey that forgiveness whereof we speak And we shall need no other proof than that of its being also a pledge to assure the baptized person of it For since God cannot be suppos'd to fit any thing for an end which he doth not on his part intend to accomplish by it He who knows himself to partake of that which is fitted by God to convey forgiveness of sin may know alike and be assur'd as to the part of God of his receiving that forgiveness as well as the outward means of its conveyance For which cause in my Discourse of its other inward and spiritual Graces I shall take notice only of that outward and visible sign as a means fitted by God to convey them because its being also a pledge may be easily deduced from it PART VI. Of Mortification of sin and Regeneration by Baptism The Contents Of the relation of the sign of Baptism to such inward and spiritual Graces as tend to free us from the pollution of sin or introduce the contrary purity And that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby they are convey'd This evidenced as to the former even our death unto sin which is also explain'd from such Texts of Scripture as make mention of our being baptiz'd into it and buried by Baptism in it or from such as describe us as cleansed by the washing of it The like evidenc'd from the same Scripture concerning the latter even our new birth unto righteousness As that again farther clear'd as to this particular by the consentient Doctrine and practice of the Church by the opinion the Jews had of that Baptism which was a Type and exemplar of ours and the expressions of the Heathen concerning it The Doctrine of the Church more largely insisted upon and exemplified from Justin Martyr Tertullian and S. Cyprian I Have considered the sign of Baptism hitherto in its relation to Forgiveness that Grace which tends to free men from their guilt and is for that purpose convey'd by Baptism to us I come now to consider it in its relation to those which either tend to free them from the pollution of sin best known by the name of a Death unto it or to introduce the contrary righteousness and is call'd a new birth unto it Where again I shall shew in each of them that as the outward work of Baptism hath the relation of a sign unto them so it hath equally the relation of a means fitted by God to convey them and where it is duly receiv'd doth not fail to introduce them To begin as is but meet with that which hath the name of a Death unto sin because sin must be first subdu'd before the contrary quality can be introduc'd Where first I will enquire what we are to understand by it and then what evidence there is of the sign of Baptism's being fitted to convey it For the better understanding the former whereof we are to know that as Men by the corruption of their nature are inclined unto sin and yet more by the irregularity of their conversations so those inclinations are to the persons in whom they are as a principle of life to a living Creature and accordingly do both dispose them to act sutably thereto and make them brisk and vigorous in it Now as it cannot well be expected that where such inclinations prevail Men should pursue those things which piety and vertue prompt them to so it was the business of Philosophy first and afterwards of Religion if not wholly to destroy those inclinations yet at least to subdue them in such sort that they should be in a manner dead and the persons in whom they were so far forth dead also They neither finding in themselves the like inclinations to actual sin nor hurried on by them when they did How little able Philosophy was to contribute to so blessed an effect is not my business to shew nor indeed will there be any need of it after what I have elsewhere * Expl. of the Creed Art. I believe in the Holy Ghost said concerning the necessity of the divine Grace in order to it But as Christianity doth every where pretend to the doing of it and which is more both represents that effect under the name of a death unto sin and compares Men's thus dying with that natural death which our Saviour underwent so it may the more reasonably pretend to the producing of it because it also pretends to furnish Men with the power of his Grace to which such an effect cannot be suppos'd to be disproportionate The only thing in question as to our present concernment is whether as the outward work of Baptism hath undoubtedly the relation of a sign unto it so it hath also the relation of a means fitted by God for the conveying of it and what evidence there is of that relation Now there are two sorts of Texts which bear witness to this relation as well as to its having that more confessed relation of a sign Whereof the former entreat of this Grace under the title of a death unto sin the latter of a cleansing from it Of the former sort I reckon that well known place to the Romans where S. Paul doth not only suppose all true Christians †Rom. 6.2 to be dead to sin and accordingly argue from it the unfitness of their living any longer therein but affirm all that are baptized into Jesus Christ * Rom. 6.3 to be baptized into that death yea to be buried by Baptism (a) Rom. 6.4 into it to be planted together (b) Rom. 6.5 by that means in the likeness of Christs death and to have their old Man (c) Rom. 6.6 or
the body of sin crucified with him For shall we say that S. Paul meant no more by all this than that the design of Baptism and the several parts of it was to represent to us the necessity of our dying and being buried as to sin and that accordingly all that are baptized into Christ make profession of their resolution so to do but not that they are indeed buried by Baptism as to that particular But beside that we are not lightly to depart from the propriety of the Scripture phrase which must be acknowledg'd rather to favour a real death than the bare signification of it That Apostle doth moreover affirm those whom he before describ'd as dead to be freed (d) Rom. 7.18 from sin yea so far (e) Rom. 7.18 as to have passed over into another service even that of righteousness and to have obeyed from the heart (f) Rom. 7.17 that form of Doctrine into which they had been delivered Which suppos'd as it may because the direct affirmation of S. Paul will make that death whereof we speak to be a death in reality as well as in figure and accordingly because Men are affirmed to be baptized into it shew that Baptism to be a means of conveying it as well as a representation of it Agreeable hereto or rather yet more express is that of the same Apostle to the Colossians (g) Col. 2.11 though varying a little from the other as to the manner of expression For having affirmed them through Christ to have put off the body of the sins of the flesh by a circumcision not made with hands and consequently by a spiritual one he yet adds lest any should fancy that spiritual Circumcision to accrue to them without some ceremonial one in the Circumcision of Christ even that Baptism which conformably to the circumcision of the Jews he had appointed for their entrance into his Religion by and wherein he accordingly affirms as he did in the former place that they were not only buried with him but had risen together with him by the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead From whence as it is clear that the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh which is but another expression for a death unto them is though accomplished by a spiritual Grace yet by such a one as is conveyed to us by Baptism so it becomes yet more clear by what he adds concerning Men's rising with him in the same Baptism even to a life contrary to what they had before deposited through the faith of the operation of God. For as we cannot conceive of that rising with Christ as other than a real one because there would not otherwise have needed such a faith as that to bring it about So neither therefore but think the like of that death which it presupposeth and consequently that that Baptism to which it is annex'd is a means of conveying it as well as a representation of it But so we may be yet more convinc'd by such Texts of Scripture as speak of this death unto sin under the notion of a cleansing from it Of which nature is that so often alledged one (h) Eph. 5.26 27. concerning Christ's sanctifying and cleansing his Church with the washing of water by the word For as it appears from what is afterwards subjoyn'd as the end of that cleansing even that the Church might not have any spot or wrinkle but that it should be holy and without blemish As it appears I say from thence that the Apostle speaks in the verse before concerning a cleansing from the filth of sin which is but another expression for the putting off the body of sin or a death unto it So it appears in like manner from S. Paul's attributing that cleansing to the washing of water that the outward sign of Baptism is by the appointment and provision of God a means of conveying that spiritual Grace by which that cleansing is more immediately effected and that death unto sin procur'd From that death unto sin therefore pass we to our new birth unto righteousness that other inward and spiritual Grace of Baptism and the complement of the former A Grace of whose conveyance by Baptism we can much less doubt if we consider the language of the Scripture concerning it or the Doctrine as well as practice of the Church The opinion the Jews had of that which seems to have been its type and exemplar or the expressions even of the Heathen concerning it For what less can the Scripture be thought to mean when it affirms us to be born of the water (i) Joh. 3.5 of it as well as of the spirit yea so as to be as truly spirit (k) Joh. 3.6 as that which is born of the flesh is flesh What less can it be thought to mean when it entitles it the laver of (l) Tit. 3.5 Regeneration and which is more affirms us to be saved by it as well as by the renewing of the Holy Ghost What less when it requires us to look upon our selves as alive (m) Rom. 6.11 unto God by it as well as buried (n) Rom. 6.4 by it into the former death or as the same Apostle elsewhere expresseth it as risen with Christ in it (o) Col. 2.12 through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead In fine what less when it affirms us to be sanctified with the washing (p) Eph. 5.26 of it as well as it elsewhere doth by the influences of God's Spirit For these expressions shew plainly enough that Baptism hath its share in the producing of this new birth as well as the efficacy of God's Spirit And consequently that it is at least the conveyer of that Grace by which it is more immediately produc'd And indeed as if men would come without prejudice they would soon see enough in those expressions to convince them of as much as I have deduced from them So they might see yet more if they pass'd so far in the doctrine and language of the Church to confirm them in that Interpretation of them For who ever even of the first and purest times spake in a lower strain concerning Baptism who ever made less of it than of a means by which we are regenerated I appeal for a proof hereof to their so unanimously (q) See Part 2. understanding of Baptism what our Saviour spake to Nicodemus concerning the necessity of men's being born again of water and of the spirit For as all men whatsoever interpret that of our new birth unto righteousness and so far as the spirit of God is concerned in it of the means by which it is produc'd So they must therefore believe that if the Antients understood it of Baptism they allotted that its share in it and consequently made it at least a conveyer of that Grace by which this new birth is produc'd I appeal farther to the particular declarations of
of Baptism than the Catholicks did Though there be some presumption on the contrary that they made use of the very same form because though they deny'd a Trinity of Persons yet they asserted one and the same God to be rightly entitled by the names of Father Son and Holy Ghost Yet did the Nicene Council notwithstanding because of their direct and manifest denial of the Trinity and their affirming Christ to be a meer Man so far disallow their Baptism as to require the reiteration of it As indeed why should it not when those Paulianists did so directly and manifestly contradict the sense of that form whereby they pretended to proceed That direct and manifest contradiction of theirs proclaming to the World that though they baptiz'd in the same form of words with the Orthodox yet in a perfectly different sense and consequently departed alike from that Institution which was to give force to it I say not the same of the Baptism of the Arians where they made use of the same form of words which the Institution prescrib'd as it is certain that many * De Arianis qui propriâ sua lege utuntur ut baptizentur placuit Si ad Ecclesiam aliqui de hac haerisi venerint interrogent eos fidei nostrae sacerdotes symbolum Et si perviderint in Patre Filio Spiritu sancto eos baptizatos manus eis tantum imponatur ut accipiant spiritum sanctum c. Concil Arel c. 8. of them did Partly because the Church receiv'd those that had been so baptized by them without any new Baptism And partly because neither so directly and manifestly contradicting the Doctrine of the Trinity by their own nor varying from the prescribed form as some other of them did they may be reasonably presum'd to have left the form by them us'd to its proper sense whatever that was and to what he who prescrib'd it did intend it Which suppos'd what should hinder Christ from giving force to that Baptism which is so administred by them These as they do not at all vary from the Institution of Christ so in this particular even in the application of the Baptismal water to the Baptized parties acting not in their own or in their peoples names but in the name of Christ and who therefore may the rather be supposed to give force and vertue to it The result of the premises is this A Heretick is indeed oblig'd to baptize into the truly Christian Faith neither can any man otherwise promise force from that act of his But if he baptize into that faith as he may even whilst he continues such his Baptism is valid neither can any man doubt of a blessing from it who comes prepared for it and when he comes to know in what company he hath been engag'd renounceth that and their Heresie and both submits himself to the discipline of the Church and keeps to the communion of it PART X. Of the Baptism of those of riper years The Contents To what and what kind of persons Baptism ought to be administred Which as to those of riper years is shewn to be unto all that come duly qualified for it What those qualifications are upon that account enquir'd into and Repentance and Faith shewn from the Sripture as well as from our own Catechism to be they That Repentance and Faith more particularly considered the definitions given of them by our Church explain'd and established The former whereof is effected by shewing what Repentance doth presuppose what it imports and to what it doth naturally dispose us The latter by shewing what those promises are which by the Catechism are made the object of our Faith or Belief what that Belief of them doth presuppose what is meant by a stedfast Belief of them and what evidence there is of that being the Faith or Belief requir'd to the receiving of Baptism III. BEing now to enquire Question What is required of persons to be baptized Answer Repentance whereby they forsake Sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises made to them in that Sacrament according to the method before laid down to what and what kind of persons the Sacrament of Baptism ought to be administred for my more advantageous resolution thereof I will consider it first as to those of riper years and then as to Infants and Children That I give the precedency to those of riper years though such Baptisms as those are little known among us is because there is no doubt Baptism began with them and could not indeed have found any other entrance into the World The Baptism of Infants in the opinion of those who do most strongly assert it depending upon the Baptism of their Parents or of those who are in the place of them Of whom if some had not been baptiz'd in their riper years those Infants that claimed by them could not with reason have pretended to it Of those of riper years therefore I mean first to entreat and shew to what and what kind of persons among them the Sacrament of Baptism ought to be administred Now as it is clear from our Saviour's injunction * Matt. 28.19 of discipling and baptizing all Nations that none of what condition soever are to be excluded from it who are qualified as Christianity requires for the receiving of it So the only thing therefore farther necessary to be enquir'd into on this Head is how men ought to be qualified for it or as our Catechism expresseth it what is required of them For supposing those praerequisites of Baptism he who enjoyns the discipling and baptizing all Nations must consequently be suppos'd to enjoyn the administring of it to all such in whom those praerequisites are Now there are two things again as our Catechism instructs us which are requir'd of all those that are to be baptized Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises made to them in that Sacrament And for these two things at least it hath the astipulation of the Scripture and I may add also of that Profession which is made by the baptized person in Baptism and which having before establish'd I may now the more securely argue from Witness for the Scripture S. Peter's †Acts 2.38 enjoyning those Jews who demanded of him and the rest what they ought to do in order to their salvation to repent and so be baptiz'd in the name of the Lord Jesus And Philip's replying upon the Eunuch who ask'd what did hinder him to be baptiz'd that if he believ'd * Acts 8.37 with all his heart he might Thereby more than intimating that if he did not he could not be baptiz'd at all though all other things concurred to the receiving of it And indeed what less can be suppos'd to be requir'd of such persons when as was before †Expl. of Bapt. Part 8. observ'd the baptized person makes Profession in his Baptism of renouncing all sin and wickedness and of
obliged when they come of years to answer their part in it so by the same favour of him with whom they contract what is done to them or for them may be interpreted as a promise on their part for the performance of it By which means though they should not be capable of a strict and proper stipulation yet they may of that which is interpretatively such The only farther doubt in this affair is whether God accepts of such a stipulation which his accepting of it under the Covenant of Circumcision and from the Children of Abraham's natural posterity will easily remove For the Covenant of Baptism being no way inferior in it self to or rather but the same Covenant in a different dress with the Covenant of Circumcision nor the Children of Abraham's spiritual seed inferior to those of the natural one What was accepted of under the Covenant of Circumcision and from the Children of Abraham's natural seed may as reasonably be presum'd to be accepted of under Baptism and from the Children of his spiritual How much more when as was before shewn his Son and our Saviour Christ (g) Mark 10.14 hath commanded Children to be brought to him for his benediction and grace and his Apostle and our great Instructer S. Paul declar'd the Children of Christians to be holy yea where but one of the Parents is so Thus we may rationally answer what is objected against the stipulation of Infants and consequently against their taking upon them what is requir'd of them in the receiving of Baptism Which will leave nothing to us to make answer to but their supposed incapacity for that faith and repentance which seem to be pre-required to it and which one would think they that are to be baptiz'd should bring with them in some measure as well as make a promise of But beside that those Texts (h) Mark 16.15 16. Acts 2.38 Acts 8.37 which speak of these prerequisites do all manifestly relate to adult persons and such as are brought to Baptism by the preaching of the Gospel and therefore not lightly to be urg'd in the case of Infants There are these three substantial reasons to make a difference between Infants and Men as to this particular First that Infants are not admitted to Baptism and the graces of it upon the account of any right in themselves but of the right of their Parents Secondly that they are admitted for the present to a lesser portion of the Divine graces than adult persons are and such as are rather the seeds of them than any throughly form'd or well setled ones Thirdly that what right they receive by their Baptism to future and more perfect priviledges depends for their actually attaining them upon their exhibiting that faith and repentance which at the time of their Baptism they only made a promise of For if as is alledged in the first reason Infants are not admitted to Baptism and the Graces of it upon the account of any right in themselves but of the right of their Parents What should hinder the Church from lending * Accommodat illis mater Ecclesia aliorum pedes ut veniant aliorum cor ut credant aliorum linguam ut fateantur ut quoniam quod aegri sunt alio peccante praegravantur sic cum hi sani sunt alio pro eis confitente salventur Aug. de Verb. Apost Serm. 10. or Infants from borrowing from it the feet of other men that they may come the heart of others that they may believe the tongue of others that they may confess that because in that they were sick they were pressed down by anothers sin they may when they are made whole be saved by the confession of another If again as is alledged in the second reason and prov'd before in the matter of regeneration Infants are admitted for the present to a lesser portion of the divine Graces than adult persons are and such as are rather the seeds of them than any throughly form'd or well setled one Who can think but that a like difference ought to be between them as to the pre-requisites of their Baptism and that therefore not to be urg'd as to the case of Infants which was prerequired of the other In fine if as is alledged in the third reason what right Infants receive by their Baptism to future and more perfect priviledges depends for their attaining of them upon their exhibiting that Faith and Repentance which at the time of their Baptism they only made a promise of It may be time enough when that right is to be actuated to exhibit that Faith and Repentance and so make way for it as they who are of years do Otherwise more shall be suppos'd to be requir'd of Infants than is of adult persons themselves Because that Faith and Repentance is not requir'd of the latter till the full priviledges of Baptism are to be bestow'd upon them And I shall only add that if care were taken that the Faith and Repentance of those who were baptiz'd in their Infancy were as well enquir'd into and prov'd as their knowledge in the Catechism is before they were allow'd to be confirm'd The Church would not only better discharge the trust that is reposed in her as concerning those persons whose Faith and Repentance were not before prov'd nor could be but more effectually stop the mouths of the Anabaptists than all the Arguments she or her Sons offer for Infant Baptism will ever be able to do For so she would make it appear that though she contented her self in their Baptism with the promise that was made for them or rather with that tacit stipulation which their very Baptism involves Yet she was as mindful when they came of years to oblige them to the performance of it and to give due proofs in their own persons of all those things which Baptism in adult persons doth either pre-suppose or oblige to the performance of PART XII Whether Baptism may be repeated The Contents What the true state of the present question is and that it is not founded in any suppos'd illegitimateness of the former Baptism but upon supposition of the baptized persons either not having before had or forfeited the regeneration of it or fallen off from that Religion to which it doth belong Whereupon enquiry is made whether if such persons repent and return they ought to be baptiz'd anew or received into the Church without What there is to perswade the repeating of Baptism and what the Church hath alledg'd against it The Churches arguments from Eph. 4.4 and Joh. 13.10 proposed but wav'd The Churches opinion more firmly established in the no direction there is in Scripture for rebaptization in those cases but rather the contrary and in the no necessity there is of it The Arguments for rebaptization answer'd IV. THE fourth and last question relating to the right Administration of Baptism is whether it may be repeated Which question is not founded in any suppos'd illegitimacy of the former
Imprimatur Johannes Battely RRmo P. ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis Ex Aedib Lamb. Apr. 10. 1686. 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 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 hereafter 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 p. 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 in fine from Christ's telling S. Peter when he ask'd the washing of his Hands and Head as well as Feet that he who had been washed needeth not save to wash his feet An answer to the supposed silence of the Scripture concerning so early a Baptism and that shewn to be neither a perfect silence nor an unaccountable one p. 23. The Contents of the Third Part. Of the outward visible Sign of Baptism THe outward visible Sign of the Christian Baptism shewn to be the Element of Water and enquiry thereupon made wherein it was intended as a Sign Which is shewn in the general to be as to the cleansing quality thereof more particularly as to the use it was put to toward new-born Infants and that application of it which was first in use even by an immersion or plunging the Party baptized in it Occasion taken from thence to enquire farther how it ought to be applyed more especially whether by an immersion or by that or an aspersion or effusion Evidence made of an immersion being the only legitimate Rite of Baptism save where necessity doth otherwise require And enquiry thereupon made whether necessity may justifie the Application of it by an Aspersion or Effusion and if it may whether the case of Infants be to be look'd upon as such a necessity What is to be thought of those additions which were antiently made or continue as yet in being in the outward solemnities of Baptism Where the sign of the Cross in Baptism is more particularly considered and answer made to those Exceptions that are made against it as a Ceremony as an addition of Men to the Institution of Christ and as a supposed Relique of Popery or giving too much countenance to the Papists abuses of it p. 43. A Digression concerning Original Sign By way of Preparation to the following Discourses The Contents OF the ground of the present Digression concerning Original Sin and enquiry thereupon made what Original Sin is Which is shewn in the General to be such a corruption of
were not capable of Circumcision yea even in them that were capable of it after the Rite of Circumcision was over if it were only to put them in mind of that deliverance they receiv'd by it Especially when their Eucharistical Manna though thence forward not enjoyn'd to be us'd because it ceased from among them was yet laid up in the Ark of God (o) Exod. 32.16 c. to put them in mind of God's nourishing them by it I say Thirdly that though Baptism might not be enjoyned at the first or at least enjoyn'd only for the use of those who were not capable of Circumcision yet it might by the advice of their Governors and the approbation of those Prophets whom God raised up among them be afterwards added to Circumcision both upon the account of their Fore-fathers being commanded to sanctifie themselves and wash their Cloaths when they appear'd before God at Mount Sinai and as a farther declaration to them of the impurity of their Nature and of that pure and holy estate which they entred into For if their forefathers were even by the command of God to sanctifie themselves with washings toward their entring into Covenant with God at Mount Sinai what should hinder such of their posterity as presided over that Nation to make an addition of the like Baptism Especially when all was little enough to admonish them of their own natural impurity and of the necessity that lay upon them of purging themselves from it I observe Fourthly that though there be not any express mention in the Scripture of that Baptism whereof we speak nor indeed of any like it beside that of John the Baptist which being immediately from Heaven ought not to be drawn into example yet is it sufficiently intimated by our Saviour where upon Nicodemus's wondring how a Man could be born of Water and the Spirit he with equal wonder demanded (p) Joh 3.10 Art thou a Master of Israel and knowest not these things For as that is a sufficient indication that the notion our Saviour advanc'd was no stranger to the Israelites and therefore neither such a Baptism as was the subject of it So it became yet more clear by the Jewish Writers representing the Baptism of a Proselyte as giving a new birth unto him That as it is the same in effect with the product of Christ's Baptism so making it yet more reasonable to believe that our Saviour had an eye to it when he wondred so much at Nicodemus for stumbling at that property in his All which put together because tending toward the same thing will make it yet more reasonable to believe that the Jewish Writers spake not at adventure when they represented the Rite of Baptism as a Rite of their own Nation and by which both themselves and their Proselytes had been of old initiated no less than by the Rite of Circumcision If there be any thing to hinder the admission of it it must be the silence of the Old Testament concerning it or at least concerning the Institution of it But as we find no great mention even of Circumcision it self after the five Books of Moses and may therefore the less wonder at the no mention of Baptism especially if as it might be instituted after his time As we find as little mention even where it might have been more reasonably expected of the first Jews being baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea or of their Eating and Drinking that spiritual repast whereof S. Paul speaketh (q) 1 Cor. 10.3 4. So there is as little reason therefore to wonder at its silence concerning this Rite especially considering what is notorious enough from thence that God from time to time rais'd up Prophets among them For their Authority and Preaching might suffice to constitute or confirm a matter of greater moment than the Rite of Baptism as added to Circumcision can be supposed to have been There being therefore no great doubt to be made of a Baptism among the Jews antecedent to that of John the Baptist and our Saviour it will not be difficult to believe first that our Saviour had an eye to it when he appointed the same Rite to initiate Men into his Religion Partly because it was his avowed Profession that he came rather to reform than destroy their former Oeconomy and partly because he might the more reasonably hope to bring them over to that faith which it was an initiation into It will be as easie to believe Secondly upon the score of the same condescension and compliance that Christ departed as little as might be from their manner of Administration of it or from the ends which it was appointed for among them such a compliance being equally necessary to carry on his design of bringing them over to his Religion The consequence whereof will be thirdly that where it doth not very plainly appear that Christianity hath made an alteration in it we interpret the Baptism thereof conformably to that of the Jews from whence it appears to have been transcrib'd How much more then where there are any fair hints in Christianity of its symbolizing with the Doctrine of the other The result of which will be fourthly our having recourse upon occasion to the Baptism of the Jews for the better clearing or establishing the Doctrine of our own Which as I shall therefore not fail to do as often as their Writings shall furnish matter for it so having said thus much concerning their Baptism and that of the Heathen I will pass on to the Baptism of the Christians and confine my self yet more strictly to the consideration of it PART II. Of the Baptism of the Christians and the Institution of it The Contents The Institution of the Christian Baptism more antient than the Command for it in S. Matthew * Matt. 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 in fine from Christ's telling S. Peter when he ask'd the washing of his Hands and Head as well as Feet that he who had been washed needeth not save to wash his feet An answer to the supposed silence of the Scripture concerning so early a Baptism and that shewn to be neither a perfect silence nor an unaccountable one NOW the first thing to be enquired after is the Institution of it and so much
the rather because though there is no doubt as to the thing it self yet there is as to the first beginning of it For there are who have thought this Sacrament to have been first instituted by our Saviour immediately before his Ascension and when he gave command to his Disciples * Matt. 28.19 to go and teach or disciple all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And I willingly grant because our Saviour was sent only †Matt. 15.24 to the lost sheep of the House of Israel that that was the first institution of it as to that more general extent it was to have in the World and it may be too as to that clear and explicit profession of the Trinity into the Names of which our Saviour afterwards commanded to baptize Because such Doctrines as that were to be poured into the Disciples by dgrees and according as they should be able to receive them But that the Sacrament it self had a more early Institution will appear from the mention there is of our Saviour's baptizing long before or at least of his Disciples doing it by his Commission and Appointment For the clearing whereof we are to know that whatsoever he may be thought to have done before he first passed into Judaea after his own Baptism by John the Baptist yet there he †Joh. 3.22 or his Disciples (a) Joh. 4.2 baptized yea to so great a number that John's Disciples (b) Joh. 3.26 affirmed to their Master that all men came to him and it and news was afterwards brought to the Pharisees (c) Joh. 4.1 that he made and baptized more Disciples than John himself Into what profession is not difficult to conjecture from our Saviour's being said to make (d) Joh. 4.1 Disciples by it and from the Baptist's affirming in allowance of our Saviour's Baptism that he that believed on the Son (e) Joh. 3.36 should have everlasting Life but he that believed not the Son should not see life but on the contrary have the wrath of God abiding on him For what could that assertion have signified toward the legitimating of our Saviour's Baptism especially when John himself admonish'd Men by his to believe on him that should come after him (f) Acts 19.4 that is on Christ Jesus Were it not that our Saviour or his Disciples did expresly baptize Men into the belief of him and of that August Authority and saving power which was vested in him as the Messiah Which makes me wonder so much the more that Tertullian (g) De Bapt. c. 11. should make that Baptism of the Disciples but of the same nature with that of John but above all at his asking how Christ could be supposed to baptize into himself when he at that time made it his business to conceal who and what he was For as John the Baptist was not wanting (h) Joh. 1.29 c. to discover what he was so our Saviour was so far from being reserv'd as to that particular that the very first of those Disciples that came to him did both acknowledge him (i) Joh. 41.45 as the Messiah immediately and represent him as such to other Men. But let us rise yet higher than Christ's baptizing in Judaea though that be not far remov'd from his first setting up for Disciples because whilst John was yet †Joh. 3.22 23. baptizing which is the time from whence the Scripture (k) Act. 1.22 10.37 makes our Saviour's preaching to commence Not that there are any express proofs before that time of his baptizing any Disciples but that it may be some probable proofs may offer themselves for it and such as we cannot reasonably refuse Of which nature I reckon first his making Disciples before that time and particularly those Disciples whom he made use of to baptize in the Land of Jury For if our Saviour made Disciples before why not after the same manner wherein he made those of Judaea He had to induce him to it the custom that then prevail'd among the Jews of making Disciples by that solemnity as appears both by their so admitting Proselytes and the Baptism of his Forerunner He had to induce him to it the greater likelihood there was thereby of inviting others to the same Baptism than if those who were the first and chief and moreover made use of by himself to baptize had not first been baptiz'd themselves Because so there could have been no pretence to refuse the Baptism he propos'd whereas otherwise they might have rejected it as a thing unnecessary to be had or scrupled it as proceeding from incompetent Administrators of it In fine he had to induce him to it that which prevail'd with himself (l) Matt. 3 1◠to receive the Baptism of John even their fulfilling all righteousness who were not only the first of his Disciples but ordained by himself to be a pattern unto others Which inducements as they are of no small force to persuade his baptizing from the beginning because but suitable to his own proceedings or the common reasonings of Mankind so will no doubt be accounted such if there be not equal probabilities to the contrary as which are the only things that can take off the edge of them Now what is there of that nature that can perswade Christ's omission of Baptism unless it be either the Scripture's silence which shall be afterwards considered or his willingness thereby to intimate that he had not so tied his own Graces to an external Rite but that he could and would upon occasion conferr them without it But beside that there was a like fear thereby of Men's neglecting his appointments upon a presumption of their receiving his Graces as the Apostles did This may seem to have been too early a season for such an intimation because before Men were well confirm'd in his Authority or ability to conferr them even by the ordinary solemnities For if they were not as yet well confirm'd in that how should they dream of a greater power yea not rather be thereby tempted to question altogether his Authority because departing so far even from the example of John the Baptist whom all Men (m) Matt. 21.26 accounted as a Prophet But beside that our Saviour made Disciples before and may therefore not improbably be thought to have made them after the same manner We find yet farther that before he baptiz'd those of Judaea he represented the solemnity of Baptism as a thing necessary to enter Men into that Kingdom of God to which he invited them Our Saviour not only telling Nicodemus that except a Man were born again (n) Joh. 3.3 he could not see the Kingdom of God but yet more plainly that except he were born again of Water (o) Joh. 3.5 and of the Spirit he could not possibly enter into it For how could Christ represent that as necessary which be himself had not afforded to
his first and chiefest Disciples nor for ought that doth appear ever after did For if he did he would certainty have done it before he made use of them to baptize others Partly because they were the first Disciples he had and partly because so they would have been more apparently qualified to have administred the same Baptism unto others If therefore Christ represented Baptism as necessary even before his baptizing in Judaea it is not unreasonable to think he had both instituted and administred it before Especially when the Disciples he before had cannot well be thought to have had it afterwards as in reason they must have had it if it were so necessary as our Saviour affirm'd it And possibly neither would they who are otherwise perswaded have in the least suspected the force of this argument had it not been for an opinion of theirs that our Saviour spake not in this place of Baptism but of Men's being born again of that spirit of God which hath the same cleansing quality with water So making that speech of our Saviour to be that which the Rhetoricians call an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently resolvable into a watery or cleansing Spirit as Virgil 's pateris libamus auro is into pateris aureis or golden Dishes Even as they suppose the Scripture (p) Matt. 3.11 meant when it affirm'd that Christ should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire that is to say with that Holy Ghost which hath the purifying and warming qualities of that Element I will not now say though I might that that figure might have been more allowable here if that speech of Christ could have been so fairly resolv'd into a watery Spirit as pateris auro may be into pateris aureis Which that it cannot be is sufficiently evident from Gold's being the proper Material of those Dishes whereof the Poet speaks which water to be sure is not of the other But neither will I any more than say that Christ's baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with fire doth not make at all for this figure because it is certain that at the day of Pentecost which was the most notorious descent of the Holy Ghost and particularly referr'd to by that Baptism (q) Act. 1.5 Christ baptized his Disciples with a material fire as well as that But I say which is more material that there is great reason to understand our Saviour here of that Baptism by water which we have affirmed his words to import For so first as Mr. Hooker (r) Eccl. Pol. li. 5.9.59 did long since observe the Letter of the Text perswades and which we are not lightly to depart from unless we will make the Scripture a very uncertain Rule and indeed to prove any thing which wanton wits would have it So secondly as the same Hooker (ſ) Ibid. observes the Antients * Justin Martyr Apol. 2. p. 94. Tertul. de Bapt. c. 13. Cyprian Epist 73. without exception understood it yea he †Tertul. ubi supra who makes the Baptism now under consideration even the Baptism of Christ before his Ascension to be but of the same nature with S. John's So thirdly we have cause to understand Christ here because expressing what he here intended by a new birth from water which is the property (t) Tit. 3. ◠of that Baptism he afterwards commanded the Apostles to administer In fine so several circumstances both of the Text and Context perfwade and some too that are not so ordinarily taken notice of Of which nature I reckon as none of the least that which gave occasion to them even Nicodemus's coming to Jesus by night (u) Joh. 3.2 and there and then acknowledging to him that he was a teacher come from God and that he himself was induced to believe it by the miracles our Saviour wrought For that secret confession of his being not only not agreeable to that more publick one (w) Matt. 10.32 which our Saviour requir'd but as appears by the answer he return'd to it intimated by him to be insufficient because letting him know that except he was born again of water and the spirit he could not enter into the Kingdom of God Nothing can be more agreeable to our Saviour's mind than to understand those Words of his of Men's making a more publick confession of him in order to their Salvation if the Words can with any reason be thought to admit of it Which that they may is evident from hence that whatever our Saviour now understood by them the like expression (x) Tit. 3.5 became afterwards an usual periphrasis of Baptism which was a publick confession of our Saviour I say secondly that as the occasion of the words doth naturally lead to such a sense as will make them import a more publick Confession of our Saviour So it will consequently prompt us to understand them of such a new Birth as is perform'd by Water and the Spirit rather than of that which is perform'd by the Spirit alone That as it is a Birth which manifests it self to the Eyes of others which this cannot be supposed to do so being a Birth therefore which may publickly declare our Confession of him by whose appointment we are born again Agreeable hereto thirdly is the sense of the words themselves if those Jewes of whom Nicodemus was sometime a Ruler may be listned to in this affair They not only affirming their own Proselytes to have been admitted by Baptism but that Baptism also represented as a thing which gave them a new birth yea so far as to make them put off their old relations by it For what then can be more reasonable than to think that our Saviour when he spake to a Jew spake the same Language with them and consequently that as he spake of being born of Water as well as the Spirit he meant a like Baptism by it Especially when it is observable fourthly that our Saviour ask'd Nicodemus not without some amazement (y) Joh. 3.20 Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things For what was this but to intimate yet more that the new Birth whereof he spake was no stranger to themselves and consequently because he spake of being born of Water that he meant a Baptism by it Add hereunto fifthly our Saviour's affirming himself in the former Discourse to have spoken of earthly (z) Joh. 3.12 things and as one would think therefore of such a Birth which though influenced by God's Spirit yet had something of earthly as that is oppos'd to heavenly adhering to it As in fine the Evangelist's subjoyning to this Discourse of a new Birth by Water the mention of our Saviour's (*) Joh. 3.22 passing into Judaea and there baptizing There being not a fairer account either of that connexion or our Saviour's proceedings than that agreeably to what he had said concerning the necessity of Men's being so born again he went into Judaea and
which was apply'd to new-born Infants and to represent alike washing away of natural pollutions One other particular there is wherein I have said the Water of Baptism to have been intended as a sign and that is in respect of that manner of application which was sometime us'd I mean the dipping or plunging the party baptized in it A signification which S. Paul will not suffer those to forget who have been acquainted with his Epistles For with reference to that manner of Baptizing we find him affirming (m) Rom. 6.4 that we are buried with Christ by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life And again (n) Rom. 6.5 that if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection To the same purpose or rather yet more clearly doth that Apostle discourse where he tells us (o) Col. 2.12 that as we are buried with Christ in Baptism so we do therein rise also with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the Dead For what is this but to say that as the design of Baptism was to oblige Men to conform so far to Christ's Death and Resurrection as to die unto Sin and live again unto Righteousness so it was perform'd by the ceremony of immersion that the person immersd might by that very ceremony which was no obscure image of a Sepulture be minded of the preceden death as in like manner by his comming again out of the Water of his rising from that death to life after the example of the Instituter thereof For which cause as hath been elsewhere (p) Expl. of the Creed in the words Aud Buried observ'd the Antient Church added to the Rite of immersion the dipping of the party three several times to represent the three days Christ continued in the Grave for that we find to have been the intention of some and made the Eve of Easter one of the solemn times of the Administration of it 3. The third thing to be enquir'd concerning the outward visible sign of Baptism is how it ought to be apply'd where again these two things would be considered First whether it ought to be applyed by an immersion or by that or an aspersion or effusion Secondly whether it ought to be applyed by a threefold immersion or aspersion answerably to the names into which we are baptiz'd or either by that or a single one The former of these is it may be a more material question than it is commonly deem'd by us who have been accustomed to baptize by a bare effusion or sprinkling of water upon the party For in things which depend for their force upon the meer will and pleasure of him who instituted them there ought no doubt great regard to be had to the commands of him who did so As without which there is no reason to presume we shall receive the benefit of that ceremony to which he hath been pleased to annex it Now what the command of Christ was in this particular cannot well be doubted of by those who shall consider first the words of Christ (q) Matt. 28. â—9 concerning it and the practice of those times whether in the Baptism of John or of our Saviour For the words of Christ are that they should Baptize or Dip those whom they made Disciples to him for so no doubt the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies and which is more and not without its weight that they should baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Thereby intimating such a washing as should receive the party baptized within the very body of that Water which they were to baptize him with Though if there could be any doubt concerning the signification of the words in themselves yet would that doubt be remov'd by considering the practice of those times whether in the Baptism of John or of our Saviour For such as was the practice of those times in Baptizing such in reason are we to think our Saviour's command to have been concerning it especially when the words themselves incline that way There being not otherwise any means either for those or future times to discover his intention concerning it Now what the practice of those times was as to this particular will need no other proof than their resorting to Rivers and other such like receptacles of waters for the performance of that ceremony as that too because there was much Water there For so the Scripture doth not only affirm concerning the Baptism of John (r) Matt. 3.5 6.13 John 3.23 but both intimate concerning that which our Saviour administred in Judaea because making John's Baptism and his to be so far forth of the same sort (Å¿) Joh. 3.22 23. and expresly affirm concerning the Baptism of the Eunuch which is the only Christian Baptism the Scripture is any thing particular in the description of The words of S. Luke (t) Act. 8.38 being that both Philip and the Eunuch went down into a certain water which they met with in their journey in order to the baptizing of the latter For what need would there have been either of the Baptist's resorting to great confluxes of Water or of Philip and the Eunuch's going down into this were it not that the Baptism both of the one and the other was to be performed by an immersion A very little Water as we know it doth with us sufficing for an effusion or sprinkling But beside the words of our Blessed Saviour and the concurrent practice of those times wherein this Sacrament was instituted It is in my opinion of no less consideration that the thing signified by the Sacrament of Baptism cannot otherwise be well represented than by an immersion or at least by some more general way of purification than that of effusion or sprinkling For though the pouring or sprinkling of a little Water upon the Face may suffice to represent an internal washing which seems to be the general end of Christ's making use of the Sacrament of Baptism yet can it not be thought to represent such an entire washing as that of new-born Infants was and as Baptism may seem to have been intended for because represented as the laver (u) Tit. 3.5 of our regeneration That though it do require an immersion yet requiring such a general washing at least as may extend to the whole Body As other than which cannot answer its type nor yet that general though internal purgation which Baptism was intended to represent The same is to be said yet more upon the account of our conforming to the Death and Resurrection of Christ which we learn from S. Paul to have been the design of Baptism to signifie For though that might and was well enough represented by the baptized persons being
buried in Baptism and then rising out of it yet can it not be said to be so or at least but very imperfectly by the bare pouring out or sprinkling the Baptismal Water on him But therefore as there is so much the more reason to represent the Rite of immersion as the only legitimate Rite of Baptism because the only one that can answer the ends of its Institution and those things which were to be signified by it so especially if as is well known and undoubtedly of great force the general practice of the Primitive Church was agreeable thereto and the practice of the Greek Church to this very day For who can think either the one or the other would have been so tenacious of so troublesome a Rite were it not that they were well assured as they of the Primitive Church might very well be of its being the only instituted and legitimate one How to take off the force of these Arguments altogether is a thing I mean not to consider Partly because our Church (w) See the Rubrick in the Office of Baptism before the words I baptize thee c. seems to persuade such an immersion and partly because I cannot but think the forementioned Arguments to be so far of force as to evince the necessity thereof where there is not some greater necessity to occasion an alteration of it For what benefit can Men ordinarily expect from that which depends for its force upon the will of him that instituted it where there is not such a compliance at least with it and the Commands of the Instituter as may answer those ends for which he appointed it And indeed whatever may have been done to Infants which I no way doubt were more or less baptized from the beginning the first mention we find of Aspersion in the Baptism of the Elder sort was in the case of the Clinici or Men who receiv'd Baptism upon their sick Beds and that Baptism represented by S. Cyprian * Epist ad Magn. 76. In Sacramentis salutaribus necessitate cogente Deo indulgentiam suam largiente totum credentibus conferunt Divina compendia as legitimate upon the account of the necessity that compel'd it and the presumption there was of God's gracious acceptation thereof because of it By which means the lawfulness of any other Baptism than by an immersion will be found to lie in the necessity there may sometime be of another manner of Administration of it and we therefore only enquire whether the necessity of the party to be baptiz'd can justifie such an alteration and what is to be look'd upon as such a necessity And indeed though that Magnus to whom S. Cyprian directed the forementioned Letter seemed to question the lawfulness of such a Baptism and that Father as his manner is spake but modestly concerning it yet there is not otherwise any appearance of the Antient Churches disapproving the Baptism of the Clinicks because they were not loti but perfusi as S. Cyprian expresseth it For even he himself doth there intimate that they †Aut si aliquis existimat eos nibil consecutos eo quod aquâ salutari tantum perfusi sunt c. non decipiantur ut si incommoduâ— languoris evaserint convaluerint baptizentur Si autem baptizari non possunt qui jam Baptismo Ecclesiastico sanctificati sunt cur in fiâ—â— suâ Domini in dulgentiâ scandalizentur Cypr. ubi supra who liked not the Baptism of the Clinicks did not yet care to baptize them again He adds farther that they who had been so baptiz'd were known to have been delivered thereby from that unclean spirit which before possess'd them * Denique rebus ipsis experimur ut necessitate urgente in aegritudine baptizati gratiam consecuti careant immundo spiritu quo antea movebantur laudabiles ac probabiles in Ecclesiâ vivant plusque per dies singulos in augmentum coelestis gratiae per fidei Sacramentum proficiant Cypr. ibid. ,and after their recovery gave as good proof as any by their holy living of their being sanctified by that Baptism In fine that they who differ'd from him as to the rebaptization of Hereticks which was the sounder part of the Church in that particular did without any difference admit those who had been baptiz'd by Hereticks †Et tantus honor habeatur haereticis ut inde venientes non interrogentur utrumne loti sint an perfusi utrumne Clinici fint an Peripatetici Cypr. ibid. neither were scrupulous in enquiring whether they were wash'd or sprinkled Clinicks or Peripateticks Which passages alone are a sufficient proof that the generality of the Church look'd upon sprinkling as enough where there was any just necessity to constrain it But so to omit other proofs we may be satisfied even by that Canon (x) Cod. Eccl. Vniv can 57. cum not Just which was made against some of the foremention'd Clinicks The utmost that Canon pretended to do against them being the hindring them from being promoted to the Priesthood as that too not because of any unlawfulness in the manner of their Baptism but because there was sometime a presumption that that Baptism proceeded rather from necessity than choice or that they had as Tertullian (y) De Poenit. cap. 8. speaks deferr'd the receiving of it that they might in the mean time indulge to their sins as nothing doubting but their future Baptism would wipe off all There being therefore no doubt to be made so far as the judgment or practice of the Church can warrant us that necessity doth justifie a bare Aspersion in Baptism Enquire we for our farther confirmation in it what there was in the Scripture to induce them to it or establish us in the belief of it Which I conceive to be their understanding from thence (z) 1 Pet. 3.21 that though Baptism was the thing that sav'd yet it was not so much by its washing away the filth of the flesh as from that answer of a good Conscience which it did involve That though the external washing was also necessary in its kind and where it might be had in those circumstances also wherein it was instituted yet since God had declar'd * Matt. 12.7 That he would have mercy and not sacrifice there was reason enough to believe that he requir'd no farther a compliance in this particular than was consistent with the safety of Mens lives to afford especially when what was wanting in the application of the outward visible sign might be made up by the form of words wherewith it was administred and Men admonished thereby of those significations of Baptism which the visible solemnities thereof did not suggest For the several ends of Baptism being thus secur'd there was still the less reason to be scrupulous about the means or think God would be rigorous in exacting them But so they might be yet more assur'd as it appears St. Cyprian â€
Head than that that Law which requires a pious and innocent temper was given to Adam in that capacity But as we can as little doubt of that if his contracting a contrary temper was as fatal to his Posterity as to himself So that it was will need no other proof than his producing the like temper in them and that temper 's proving as deadly to them The former whereof is evident from what I before said to shew that Original Sin had its beginning from Adam the latter from S. Paul's (p) Rom. 7.24 calling it a Body of Death or a Body that brings it The Genitive Case (q) Grot. iâ— loc among the Hebrews and Hellenists being usually set for such Adjectives as betoken a causality in them Even as the Savour of Death is us'd for a deadly one or that which bringeth death and the Tree of Life for a life-giving one or that which was apt to produce or continue it I deny not indeed that I may now pass to those Exceptions that are commonly made against it that it may seem hard to conceive how Adam should be set in such a capacity as to involve all mankind in happipiness or misery according as he either continued in or fell from that integrity wherein God created him I deny not therefore but that it is equally hard to conceive how God should give him such a Law the observation or transgression whereof on his part should redound to the account of his Posterity But as every thing that is hard to be conceiv'd is not therefore to be deny'd if it be otherwise strengthen'd with sufficient proofs So it would be consider'd also whether it be not much more hard to conceive how God should otherwise involve Infants and Children in those calamities into which they often fall especially in National Judgments It being certainly more agreeable to the divine Justice to conceive those to have some way or other offended and consequently thereto to have fallen under the displeasure of it than to conceive them to suffer it without any offence at all For why then should we not think especially when the Scripture hath led the way that God oblig'd them in Adam to a pious and innocent temper and which they losing in him they became obnoxious with him to the same sad effects of his displeasure And though it be true that there is this great imparity between the cases that the effect of God's displeasure upon occasion of Original Sin is made to reach to eternal misery as well as to a temporal one whereas the case we before instanc'd in concerns only a temporal punishment Yet as they do thus far agree that a punishment is inflicted where there is no actual sin to deserve it which is sufficiently irreconcileable with the understanding we otherwise have of the divine Justice So that great imparity may be much abated by considering that God hath provided a Plaster as large as the Sore even by giving his Son to dye for all Mankind and appointed the Sacrament of Baptism to convey the benefit of it For as the consequents of Original Sin will be thereby taken off from so many Infants at least as are admitted to that Sacrament so that mercy of his to those and the assurance we have from the Scripture of his giving his Son to dye for all may perswade us to believe that though he hath not reveal'd the particular way to us yet he hath some other way to convey the benefit of that death to those who are not admitted to the other But it will be said it may be which is a no less prejudice against the being of Original Sin that all sin to make it truly such must have the consent of the will of those in whom it is as well as be the transgression of a Law. A thing by no means to be affirm'd concerning that which we call Original Sin because not only contracted before we had a being and therefore also before we had so much as the faculty of willing but moreover conveyed to us when we had neither reason to apprehend it nor any power in our wills either to admit or reject it And indeed how altogether to take off the force of that Objection is beyond my capacity to apprehend or satisfie the understandings of other Men Because as I cannot see how any thing can be a sin which hath not also the consent of the will of those in whom it is so I am as little able to conceive how Original Sin should have the consent of ours either when it was first contracted or when it was transmitted to us But as I am far less able to conceive how Infants and Children should come to be so severely dealt with without any offence at all or therefore without having some way or other consented to one So I think first that that difficulty may well be laid in the ballance against the other yea alledged as a bar to the supposed force of it For why should my inability to apprehend how Infants and Children could consent to Original Sin prevail with me to deny the being of it when a far greater inability to apprehend how the same persons should come to be so severely dealt withal without it doth not prevail with me to deny that severe usage of them Neither will it avail to say which is otherwise considerable enough that we have for the belief of this last the testimony of our senses which is not to be alledged as to the other For the question is not now whether the severe usage of Infants and Children may not more reasonably be believ'd than their Original Sin upon the account of the greater evidence there may be of it But whether we can any more deny the Original Sin of Infants and Children upon the account of our inability to apprehend how they should consent unto it than we can deny the severe usage of the same persons upon the account of our inability to apprehend how they should come to be so dealt with without the other Which that we cannot is evident from hence that we are equally at a loss in our apprehensions about the one and the other that I say not also more at a loss about the latter than about the former And indeed as we find it necessary to believe many things notwithstanding our inability to apprehend how they should come to pass and ought not therefore to deny the being of any one thing upon the sole account of that inability So our apprehensions are so short as to the modes of those things of the being whereof we are most assured that it will hardly be deemed reasonable to insist upon the suggestions of them against the affirmations of the Scripture Partly because of the Authority of him from whom it proceeded and partly because we cannot so easily fail in our apprehension concerning the due sense of the affirmations of it as in the deductions of our own reason concerning
Col. 2 12. with Christ therein through the faith of the operation of him who raised him from the dead For how come Men by reason of their being alive unto God through Baptism to be affirmed to have risen with Christ in it but upon the account of that Baptism of theirs being a representation of that new life or birth which we have by the means of it as well as of the Resurrection of our Saviour I will conclude what I have to say concerning the inward and Spiritual Grace of Baptism when I have taken notice of that which though it do not immediately tend to our spiritual and eternal welfare yet qualifies us for those Graces that do Even our union to that Body of which Christ Jesus is the Head and by means of which he dispenseth the other graces to us For that that is also signified by the outward visible sign of Baptism will appear if we consider that visible sign as having a relation to it and then as having the relation of a sign Of the former whereof as S. Paul will not suffer us to doubt because affirming all (x) 1 Cor. 12.13 whether Jews or Gentiles to be baptiz'd into that body So there will be as little doubt of the other from the general design of its institution and from what S. Paul intimates in the former place concerning it That expression of being baptized into the body of Christ importing our being receiv'd by Baptism within it as the body of the Baptized is within those waters wherein he is immersed Which will consequently make that Rite a true and proper sign of Our Union to Christ's Body and that union therefore a thing signified by it Such are the things which are by Baptism signified on the part of God and Christ or that I may speak in the language of our Church the inward and spiritual Graces thereof It remains that I also shew the things signified by it on the part of the Baptized even an Abrenunciation of their former sins and a resolution to believe and act as Christianity obligeth them to do But because both the one and the other of these will be more clearly understood if they be handled apart and whatsoever is to be known concerning each of them laid as near together as may be Therefore having begun to entreat of the inward and spiritual Grace of Baptism I will continue my Discourse concerning it and accordingly go on to enquire what farther relation the outward visible sign of Baptism hath to its inward and Spiritual Grace or Graces and first of all to Forgiveness of sin PART V. Of Forgiveness of sin by Baptism The Contents Of the relation of the sign of Baptism to its inward and spiritual Grace and particularly to Forgiveness of sin Which is either that of a means fitted by God to convey it or of a pledge to assure the Baptized person of it The former of these relations more particularly considered as that too with respect to Forgiveness of Sin in the general or the Forgiveness of all Sin whatsoever and Original Sin in particular As to the former whereof is alledged first the Scriptures calling upon Men to be Baptiz'd for the remission or forgiveness of sin Secondly the Church's making that Forgiveness a part of her Belief and Doctrine Thirdly the agreeing opinions or practices of those who were either unsound members of it or Separatists from it And Fourthly the Calumnies of its enemies The like evidence made of the latter from the Scripture's proposing Baptism and its Forgiveness as a remedy against the greatest guilts and in special against that wrath which we are Children of by Nature From the premises is shewn that the sign of Baptism is a pledge to assure the Baptized of Forgiveness as well as a means fitted by God for the conveying of it NOW as the outward visible sign of Baptism hath beside that of a sign the relation of a means fitted by God to convey the inward and spiritual Grace and of a pledge to assure the Baptized person of it So being now to entreat of its relation to that of the Forgiveness of sins we must therefore consider it under each of them and first as a means fitted by God for the conveying of it In the handling whereof I will proceed in this method First I will shew that it hath indeed such a relation to Forgiveness in the general Secondly that it hath such a relation to the Forgiveness of all sins whatsoever and particularly of Original That the outward visible sign of Baptism hath such a relation to Forgiveness in the general will appear from the ensuing Topicks I. From the plain and undoubted Doctrine of the Scripture II. From the consentient Doctrine and Belief of the Church III. From the whether practices or opinions of the unsound members of it or Separatists from it IV. From the Calumnies of the open Enemies thereof I. What the Doctrine of the Scripture is in this affair cannot be unknown to any who have reflected upon what S. Peter said to those Jews who demanded of him and his fellow Apostles what they should do to avert the guilt they had contracted and what Ananias said to Paul who was remitted to him upon the same account For to the former S. Peter made answer among other things that they should be baptiz'd * Acts 2.38 for the remission of sins Which shews what Baptism was intended for and what therefore if they were duly qualified they might certainly expect from it To the latter Ananias that he should arise and be baptized †Acts 22 16. and wash away his sins Which effect as it cannot be thought to referr to any thing but the preceding Baptism and therefore neither but make that Baptism the proper means of accomplishing it So can much less be thought to exclude or rather not principally to intend the washing away the guilt of them Partly because as was before observ'd that is the most usual sense of washing away sins and partly because most agreeable to the disconsolate condition Paul was then in as well as to the foregoing declaration of S. Peter II. To the Doctrine of the Scripture subjoyn we the consentient Doctrine and belief of the Church as which though it cannot add to the Authority of the other yet will no doubt conferr much to the clearing of its sense and of that Doctrine which we have deduced from it Now what evidence there is of such a consent will need no other proof than the Doctrine of her Creed †Creed in the Communion-serv and the use she made of the simple Baptism of Infants to establish against the Pelagians the being of that Original Sin they call'd in question For how otherwise could the Church call upon Men to declare that they believ'd one Baptism for the remission of sins Yea though she thought it otherwise necessary to inculcate Baptism as well as remission and the single administration of it as
some of the most eminent among them and which whosoever shall seriously consider will wonder how it should come to fall back to a naked and ineffectual sign For Justin Martyr (r) Apolog. 2. p. 93 94. speaking concerning those who had prepar'd themselves for Baptism affirms them to be brought by the brethren to a place where water is and there to be regenerated after that way of regeneration wherewith they themselves were Which what it was and of how great force he afterwards shews by affirming them thereupon to be wash'd in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as that too conformably to what our Saviour spake concerning the necessity of men's being born again To what the Prophet Isaiah meant when he said Wash you make you clean put away wickednesses from your souls And in fine to procure their deliverance from that whether natural or habitual corruptions they were under the power of For these things shew plainly enough that as he spake of the Baptismal regeneration so he spake of it too as a thing which procur'd as well as figur'd the internal regeneration of them To the same purpose doth Tertullian discourse and particularly in his Tract de Baptismo Witness his calling it in the very beginning thereof that happy Sacrament of our water wherewith being wash'd from the faults of our present blindness we are freed into eternal life His affirming presently after that we the lesser fishes according to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or greater one Jesus Christ are born in the water neither can continue safe unless we abide in it That we ought not to wonder if the waters of Baptism give life when that Element was the first that brought forth any living creature That as the Spirit of God moved at the beginning upon the face of waters so the same spirit of God after the invocation of his name doth descend from Heaven upon those of Baptism and having sanctified them from himself gives them a power of sanctifying others For these and the like passages shew as plainly that that Authour look'd upon the outward sign of Baptism as contributing in its place to the production of our new birth or sanctification as well as to the representation of it But of all the Antient Fathers that have entreated of this affair or indeed of that Sacrament which we are now upon the consideration of there is no one who hath spoken more or more to the purpose than S. Cyprian or whose words therefore will be more fit to consider Only that I may not multiply testimonies without necessity I will content my self with one single one but which indeed for the fulness thereof will serve instead of many and be moreover as clear a testimony of our dying unto sin by Baptism as of our regeneration by it For when saith he (ſ) Epist ad Donat. I lay in darkness and under the obscurity of the Night When uncertain and doubtful I floated on the Sea of this tossing World ignorant of my own life and as great a stranger to truth I thought it exceeding difficult as the manners of Men then were that any one should be born again as the divine mercy had promis'd and that being animated to a new life by the laver of salutary water he should put off that which he was before and whilst the frame of his body continu'd the same become a new Man in his heart and mind For how said I is it possible that that should be suddenly put off which either being natural is now grown hard by the natural situation of the matter or contracted by a long custom hath been improv'd by old Age c. To these and the like purposes I often discours'd with my self For as I was at that time entangled with many errours of my former life which I did not then think it was possible for me to put off So I willingly gave obedience to those vices that stuck to me and through a despair of better things I favour'd my evils as though they had been my proper and domestick ones But after that through the assistance of this generating water the blemishes of my former life were wash'd off and my mind thus purged had a light from above poured into it After that the second birth had chang'd me into a new Man through the force of that spirit or breath which I suck'd in from above Then those things which were before doubtful became exceeding certain and manifest things which were before shut were then laid open and dark things made light Then that which before seemed difficult appear'd to help rather than hinder and that which sometime was thought impossible as possible to be done So that it was not difficult to discern that that was earthly which being carnally born did before live obnoxious to faults and that that began to be God's which the Holy Ghost now animated You your self verily know and will as readily acknowledge with me what was either taken from or bestow'd upon us by that death of crimes and life of vertues Which as it is an illustrious testimony of the force of Baptism in this particular and with what reason we have affirm'd it to be a means of procuring the former death and birth So I have the more willingly taken notice of it because it comes so near even in its expression to what our Catechism hath represented as the inward and spiritual Grace thereof There being no great difference between a death of crimes and life of vertues which is the expression of that Father and a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness which is the other's And I shall only add that as the Doctrine of the Church must therefore be thought to bear sufficient testimony to Baptism's being a means of our regeneration So its practice is in this particular answerable to its Doctrine and though in another way proclaims the same thing Witness what hath been elsewhere observ'd concerning its giving Milk and Hony (t) See Part 3. to the new Baptized person as to an Infant new-born its requiring him presently after Baptism to say (u) Expl. of the Lord's Prayer in the words Out Father Our Father c. as a testimony of his Son-ship by it And in fine its making use of the word regenerated to signifie Baptized As is evident for the Greek Writers from what was but now quoted out of Justin Martyr De vitâ B. Martini c. 1. Necdum tamen regeneratus in Christo agebat quendam bonis operibus Baptismatis candidatum and from Sulpitius Severus among the Latins Which things put together make it yet more clear that whatever it may be now accounted yet the Church of God ever look'd upon the Sacrament of Baptism as a mean of our internal regeneration And indeed as it is hard to believe that it ought to be otherwise esteem'd considering what hath been alledg'd either from Scripture or the declarations of the Church So it
will appear to be yet harder if we consider the opinion of the Jews concerning that which may seem to have been both it's Type and exemplar For as I have made it appear before (w) Part 1. that even they were not without their Baptism and such a one as was moreover intended for the same general ends for which both their Circumcision was and our Baptism is So I have made it appear also (x) Ibid. that the persons so baptiz'd among them were accounted as persons new-born yea so far that after that time they were not to own any of their former relations In fine that that new birth was look'd upon as so singular that it gave occasion to their Cabalistical Doctors to teach that the old soul of the Baptized Proselyte vanished and a new one succeeded in its place For if this was the condition of that Type of Christian Baptism how much more of the Antitype thereof Especially when it is farther probable as hath been also (y) Part 2. noted from the discourse of our Saviour to Nicodemus that he both alluded in it to that Baptism of theirs and intimated the conformity of his own Baptism to it in that particular And though after so full an evidence of this relation of Baptism to regeneration it may seem hardly worth our while to alledge the expressions of the Heathen concerning it Yet I cannot forbear for the conformity thereof to the present argument to take notice of one remarkable one of Lucian (z) Lucian Philopatr p. 999. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who brings in one Triepho thus discoursing after his scoffing manner But when saith he that Galilean lighted upon me who had a bald Pate a great Nose who ascended up to the third Heaven and there learn'd the most excellent things meaning as is suppos'd S. Paul he renewed us by water made us to tread in the footsteps of the blessed and deliver'd us from the Regions of the ungodly In which passage under the title of renewing men by water he personates the Christian Doctrine concerning their being regenerated or renewed by Baptism and accordingly makes it the subject of his reproach PART VII Of our Union to the Church by Baptism The Contents Of the relation of the sign of Baptism to our Vnion to the Church and that relation shewn to be no less than that of a means whereby that Vnion is made This evidenc'd in the first place from the declarations of the Scripture more particularly from its affirming all Christians to be baptiz'd into that Body as those who were first baptiz'd after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles to have been thereby added to their company and made partakers with the rest in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship in breaking of Bread and in Prayers The like evidence of the same Union to the Church by Baptism from the declarations of the Church it self and the consequences of that Vnion shewn to be such as to make that also to be accounted one of the inward and spiritual Graces of that Baptism by which it is made HAving thus given an account of such inward and spiritual Graces of Baptism as tend more immediately to our spiritual and eternal welfare It remains that I say somewhat of that which though of no such immediate tendency yet is not without all because qualifying us for the reception of the other That Vnion I mean which we thereby obtain to Christ's mystical body the Church and by which we who were before Aliens from it as well as from God and Christ become members of the Church and partakers of the several priviledges thereof Which Vnion if any Man scruple to reckon among the inward and spiritual Graces of Baptism properly so call'd I will not contend with him about it Provided he also allow of it as a thing signified by it on the part of God and Christ and as moreover a Grace and favour to the person on whom it is bestow'd For as that is all I ask at present concerning the Union now in question So what I farther mean by it's being an inward and spiritual Grace shall be clear'd in the process of this Discourse and receive that establishment which it requires In order whereunto I will shew the outward and visible sign of Baptism to be a means whereby that Union is made and then point out the consequences of that Union That the outward visible sign of Baptism is in the nature of a means whereby we are united to the Church will appear if we reflect upon what the Scripture hath said concerning it or the agreeing declarations of the Church it self For what else to begin with the former can S. Paul * 1 Cor. 12.13 be thought to mean where he affirms all whether Jews or Gentiles or of what ever other outward differences to have been baptiz'd by one spirit into one body For as it is plain from the foregoing †1 Cor. 12.12 verse or verses that S. Paul entreats of Christ's Body the Church and consequently that the baptizing here spoken of must be meant of our Baptizing into it So it is alike plain from what it was designed to prove as well as from the natural force of the expression that it was set to denote also our being united to it thereby For as we cannot impose a more natural sense upon Baptized into that body than our being receiv'd by Baptism into it as the Baptized person is within the water and conseqently some way united to it So much less if we consider what it was intended to prove even * 1 Cor. 12.12 that Christians how many soever are but that one body For how doth their being baptiz'd into it prove them to be that one Body but that that visible sign by which they are so unites them to one another and to the whole A meer sign of Union though it may shew what the partakers thereof ought to be yet being no just proof of what they are and much less as S. Paul seems to argue that they are so by the means of it And indeed as it will therefore be hard to make the sign here spoken of to be any thing less than a means of our Union to the Church So especially if we consider what is elsewhere said concerning those who first after the descent of the Holy Ghost were baptized in the name of Christ S. Luke not only affirming of those new baptiz'd ones that they were added to (a) Acts 2.41 the Apostles and their other company which he afterwards expresseth (b) Acts 2.47 by added to the Church but that they were partakers (c) Acts 2.42 with the rest in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in Prayers For this shews their having an interest in all the priviledges of that Body and therefore much more their being united to it But so it appears that the Antient Church esteemed of it whose determination is
of the more force because it is only about the supposed means of Union to its own Body Justin Martyr after he had spoken of the baptizing of such as offer'd themselves to the Christian Church which he himself expresseth when so baptiz'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or conjoyned with themselves affirming that they were immediately brought where the brethren were assembled there to partake with them of the common Prayers that were then offer'd up of the kiss of peace and of the Lord's Supper Which last particular I have the more confidently represented the new baptized persons as then admitted to because the same Father doth not only make no distinction between them and the other brethren in it though he subjoyns the business of the Eucharist to the former Prayers and kiss of peace but affirms the same Eucharist presently after to be lawful to none to partake of but those that believ'd their Doctrine receiv'd the laver of regeneration and liv'd as Christ delivered For as he intimates thereby the admission of those that believ'd and were baptiz'd if they were also such as liv'd as Christ deliver'd which the new baptized were in reason to be accounted till they had given proof to the contrary So there is reason to believe from the use of Excommunication in the Church that that addition of living as Christ deliver'd was not made to bar the new baptized from it till they gave farther proof of such a life but to intimate the exclusion of those who after they had been admitted to it liv'd otherwise than Christianity prescrib'd So making the persons excluded the unbaptiz'd or ill living Christians and consequently the contrary thereto admitted I deny not indeed that the Rite of Confirmation did very antiently come between the receiving of Baptism and the Eucharist I deny not farther because of what was before (d) Expl. of the Sacrament in general Part 4. quoted from Justin Martyr concerning the particular Prayer that was made for the new baptized person that the substance thereof was then in use even prayer for grace for him to live as he had but now profess'd But as the design of Confirmation appears to have been to procure for the new baptiz'd a more plentiful effusion of God's Graces which is no intimation at all of his having been before no perfect Christian or not perfectly united to the Church so Baptism may for all that be look'd upon as the means of our Union to the Church which is all that I have taken upon me to assert For the farther evidencing whereof I will in the next place alledge a passage of Tertullian (e) De Bapt. c. 6. which will though not so directly prove the same thing That I mean where he saith that when the profession of our faith and sponsion of our salvation are pledged under the three witnesses before spoken of there is necessarily added thereto the mention of the Church because where those three are even the Father Son and Holy Ghost there is also the Church which is the body of the Three For as it is evident from thence that Men were even from his time baptiz'd expresly into the belief of the Church as well as into the belief of the Trinity So it will not be difficult to inferr that they were also baptiz'd into the unity thereof and made members of the Church by it Because as he affirms the Trinity to become Sponsors of our Salvation in Baptism as well as either Witnesses or objects of our Profession So he affirms those Sponsors to be as it were emboyed in the Church and consequently to exert their saving influences within it which supposeth Men's being united to it by Baptism in order to their partaking of the salutariness of the other And indeed though in that form which our Saviour prescrib'd (f) Matt 28.19 for Baptism there is mention only of baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost yet inasmuch as he prescrib'd that very form for the making of Disciples (g) Ibid. by he must consequently be suppos'd to propose it for the aggregating them to that body which he had already begun to frame and making them alike members of it There being therefore no doubt to be made of the outward visible sign of Baptism being a means of our Vnion to Christ's mystical body the Church it may not be amiss if it were only to manifest the great advantages thereof as to that particular to shew the consequences of that Vnion Which we shall find in the general to be a right to all those priviledges which Christ hath purchas'd for it More particularly to the partaking of its Sacred Offices and in and through the means of them of those inward and spiritual Graces which those Sacred Offices were intended to procure or convey For every member of a Society being by that membership of his entituled to all the priviledges that belong to it as such He who becomes a member of Christ's Body the Church as every Man who is united to it by Baptism doth must in his proportion be entituled to all those priviledges which Christ hath purchas'd for it and particularly to the priviledge of partaking of its sacred Offices and in and by the means of 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 Euchrist (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. of the Creed Art. of The forgiveness of 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
of it that there was such a thing as a Holy Ghost Neither will it avail to say as was before objected that if that had been S. Paul's intention or the certain form of Baptism S. Luke who tells the story should in reason have express'd it by their being baptiz'd into the Trinity and particularly into the name of him whom they were before so ignorant of Because S. Luke's business was not so much to give an account of the form of their Baptism as to acquaint us that whereas before they had been only baptiz'd into John's Baptism upon their understanding from S. Paul that John himself directed those that came to it to believe on him that should come after him that is on Christ Jesus they were then expresly baptiz'd into the Baptism of Christ or as S. Luke there expresseth it into the name of Jesus Christ So opposing the baptizing into the name of Jesus Christ not to the baptizing in any other form and particularly into the name of all the three persons but to the Baptism of John only and as the name of Jesus Christ might discriminate their present Baptism from it And though it be true that the like is not to be said as to the foregoing Texts because there is no opposition in them between the Baptism of John and that of Christ Yet may a fair account be given without supposing that to have been the form of Baptism of the Scriptures expressing those primitive Baptisms by baptizing into the name of Jesus only Because our Saviour was the immediate Author of that Religion into which those Baptisms were made and the baptizing into his name therefore no improper expression of a baptizing into the whole of it and into every part and particle thereof I will conclude this affair when I have added that as it appears from Justin Martyr * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. 2. p. 94. one of the Antientest Writers the Church hath that Baptism was in his time administred in the name of the three persons So all that have mentioned the Creed have represented it as a thing given to those who were to be baptized and into which therefore we are to think that if men were not minutely and particularly baptiz'd yet they were at least into the capital Articles thereof II. It appearing from the premises that Baptism ought expresly to be administred in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which is the first of those things we proposed to consider Pass we on to enquire who are valid Administrators of it or rather whether Schismaticks and Hereticks are A question which will best be voided by considering the force of those Arguments which the condemners of their Baptism have produc'd and particularly which S. Cyprian their chiefest Champion hath Now those are that Schismaticks and Hereticks are by that their Schism and Heresie deprived of the Spirit of God themselves and cannot therefore be supposed †Quis autem potest dare quod ipse non habeat aut quomodo potest spiritalia agere qui ipse amiserit spiritum Sanctum Ad Januarium Ep. 70. to conferr it upon others That Schismaticks and Hereticks as such are out of the Church and consequently can neither themselves enjoy any priviledges that belong * Nam cum dicimus Credis in vitam aeternam remissionem peccatorum per Sanctam Ecclesiam intelligimu◠remissionem peccatorum non nisi in Ecclesiâ dari apud Haereticos autem ubi Ecclesia non sit non posse peccatadimitti Cypr. ubi supra alibipassim to it nor be instrumental toward the procuring of them for others That by their Schism and Heresie they are sinners †Sed Baptizato quam precem potest facere sacerdes sacrilegus peccator Cum scriptum sit Deus peccatorem non audit sed qui eum coluerit voluntatem ejus fecerit illum audit Cypr. Ib. before God and whom therefore we cannot suppose that God will hear for other persons In fine that Hereticks in particular deprave that Faith * Vid. Cypr. ad Jubaian Ep. 73. into which Baptism is requir'd to be made and consequently must be suppos'd to baptize into a a false and counterfeit one But how little force there is in these Arguments as to the invalidating the Baptism of Schismaticks or Hereticks will appear upon a more narrow inspection into them For be it first that Schismaticks and Hereticks are by that Schism or Heresie of theirs deprived of the Spirit of God themselves Be it that they cannot therefore be suppos'd to conferr it upon others Yet will it not from thence follow but they may be valid Administratours of Baptism and they who receive it from them receive the Spirit of God with it Because that Spirit of God which goes along with Baptism is not conferred by them but by him whose Institution Baptism is and consequently no way depending upon their having the Spirit of God themselves All that the Minister confers on his part toward the procuring of that Spirit is to prepare that Baptismal Water which it is by the Institution of Christ to accompany and to administer it when so prepar'd to those who are to be baptized with it Which if the Minister doth according to the Institution of Christ there is no doubt the Spirit of God will follow of course whether he who administers Baptism partake of that Spirit or no. Otherwise a sinful Minister would be as invalid an Administrator of Baptism as the most Schismatical or Heretical one But it may be there is more of weight in Schismaticks and Hereticks being out of the Church and as such in no condition either of enjoying in themselves those priviledges that belong to it or being instrumental toward the procuring of them for others And so no doubt there would if they were fully and perfectly out of the Church nor retain'd in any measure to it But how first if Schismaticks and Hereticks were fully and perfectly out of the Church could S. Cyprian (e) Ad Quintum Ep. 70. himself allow the receiving of such without a new Baptism who had after their Baptism in the Church fallen into Schism or Heresie These as they were no less Schismaticks and Hereticks than those that were baptiz'd by Hereticks and consequently alike out of the Church So being if to be receiv'd again to be receiv'd after the same manner that is to say by a new Baptism Neither will it avail to say as that Father (f) Ibid. pleads for himself that those who have been baptiz'd in the Church are to be look'd upon as wandring sheep and as such when they return to be receiv'd into the Fold whereas the other are wholly aliens and profane For if Schismaticks and Hereticks be fully and perfectly out of the Church those also what ever they before were must cease to be look'd upon as Sheep and consequently if admitted be admitted as aliens and profane
forsake it and pay a more perfect submission to that Authority and goodness of God which he hath before so shamefully violated I reckon thirdly as a thing to which sorrow for sin doth equally dispose us a present forsaking of those sins which we are under a temptation to commit as well as a resolution to do so for the time to come There being the same force in a due sorrow for sin to dispose men to that as there is to a resolution of afterward forsaking it For which cause the Antient Church did not only refuse such persons Baptism as were of any unlawful Profession (h) Introd concern Catech c. till they actually abandon'd it but made proof (i) Ibid. also for a considerable time of the resolutions of others and till they had given her such proofs did not admit them to it They finding no doubt by manifold experience that many that offer'd themselves to Baptism made little Conscience afterward of avoiding those sins which they had before so solemnly resolv'd against and made publick profession of abandoning And though it do not appear that the Apostles themselves took this course they baptizing men immediately upon the bare profession of their Repentance and a resolution afterward to bring forth fruits meet for it Yet as the reason of that possibly might be either because of that exuberance of Grace which was then bestow'd upon their new Converts or because by means of their Ambulatory life they could not well deferr the Baptism of those that offer'd themselves till they had made some considerable trial of them which will exempt such Churches from their example where there is no such exuberance of Grace and where moreover they have setled Pastors to intend the affairs of them So we cannot think the Apostles would have ever given Baptism to such persons as should before that Baptism of theirs have fallen into those sins which they erewhile made profession of abandoning Sorrow for sin where it is hearty and real no doubt disposing men as well to a present forsaking of it as it doth to a resolution concerning it Which will make the Repentance pre-required to Baptism to be as our Catechism expresseth it a Repentance whereby as occasion offers we actually forsake sin as well as resolve for the future to abandon it An account being thus given of the first thing pre-requir'd to Baptism and our Churches definition of it both explain'd and established Pass we on to that which is alike pre-required to it even that Faith whereby we stedfastly believe the promises made to us in that Sacrament Where again I will enquire I. What those promises are which we are so to believe II. What that belief of them doth pre-suppose III. What is meant by a stedfast belief of those promises IV. What evidence there is of that being the Faith or belief which is pre-requir'd by Christianity to the receiving of that Sacrament I. Now though that Catechism which I have chosen to explain give no other account of those Promises than that they are such as are made to us in that Sacrament Yet is it not difficult to collect from thence and from what is before said concerning the Parts of a Sacrament that the Catechism means no other promises than those which make a tender of its inward and spiritual Graces For a Sacrament being before divided into an outward and visible sign and an inward and spiritual Grace as the only proper parts of it And the outward and visible sign being in like manner represented in it as no farther of value than as conducing to possess us of the other No other promises can be suppos'd to be intended here than such as make a tender of those inward and spiritual Graces as which indeed are the only things considerable in it Which will consequently make the promises here intended to be those which make a tender for the present of remisssion of sins and sanctification and in the end of everlasting life II. Those therefore being the promises which are to be the object of the Catechumens Faith and which accordingly he is stedfastly to believe It will not be difficult to shew what that belief of them pre-supposeth which is the second thing to be enquir'd into For that belief of them must at least pre-suppose a belief of all that which is necessary to bring us to the belief of the other More particularly it pre-supposeth as to our selves that we believe our selves to be naturally under a state of sin and death as without which there could be no place for that sanctification and remission which is promised in Baptism And that we are yet farther off from any title to Everlasting life as which if we had there would have been no need of a Promise in Baptism of it It presupposeth again as to Christ in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen a like stedfast belief that there was such a person as Jesus Christ and that he was appointed by God to convey such graces to us That agreeably to the predictions of the Scripture and the will of God concerning him he took upon him our nature and suffer'd in it to purchase those Graces and that he ever since intends the exhibiting of what he hath so purchas'd The belief of these and the like Articles of our Faith being as manifestly presuppos'd to the belief of those Promises which in this place we are required to intend III. That which will it may be more concern us to enquire is what our Catechism means by a stedfast belief of them For my more orderly resolution whereof I will enquire first what it means by belief and then by a stedfast one Now by belief may be meant either a simple assent of the mind and in which sense there is no doubt it is oftentimes taken in Christian Writers Or there may be meant also a belief with affiance and such as beside the assent of the mind or understanding to them doth also connote a trust in them or in God because of them By vertue of which as I have elsewhere discours'd (k) Expl. of the Decal Com. 1. Part 3. concerning the grace of trust the heart or will is prompted to desire as well as assent to the matter of the divine promises and acquiesce in those for the obtaining of it And indeed if we may judge any thing by our Homilies to which the Articles (l) Art. 11. of our Church do also particularly referr us in the point of justifying Faith this latter belief must be here intended Because a belief which hath for its end the remission of sins in Baptism and consequently a justifying one For the right and true Christian Faith saith one of our (m) Homily of Salvation Part 3. Homilies is not only to believe that the Holy Scripture and all the forecited Articles of our Faith are true but also to have a sure trust and confidence in God's merciful promises to be
ground it hath in Scripture II. What countenance from Antiquity III. What Infants acquire by it IV. What the principal objections against it are and how they are to be solv'd I. Now as it is plain to me both from Tertullian's * De Baptismo c. 18. Ait quidem Dominus Nolite illos prohibere ad me venire Veniant ergo dum adolescunt veniant dum discunt dum quo veniant docentur Fiant Christiani qaum Christum nosse potuerint arguing against that Text and the Apostolical †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 li. 6. c 15. Constitutions alledging it that the Antient Church grounded the Baptism of Infants upon Christ's * Mark 10.13 c. commanding his Disciples to suffer little Children to come unto him and blessing those that came So I am yet more confirmed in it by the unprofitable pains Tertullian took to take off the force of that Text or rather the pitiful evasion he made use of in order to it For had not the Church laid great stress upon that passage of the Scripture why did not he as the World hath since learn'd to do wholly omit the mention of it as a Text no way pertinent to the business of Infant-Baptism Or if he thought good to take notice of it why did he not turn the force of it another way and say as others have that nothing more was intended by it than to let men know they must put on the property of little Children if they meant to enter into Christ's Kingdom For either of these certainly had been more proper than what we find him to alledge in these words as to the delaying of the Baptism of Infants The Lord indeed saith Forbid not Children to come unto me Let them come therefore when they are grown let them come when they may learn and when they may be taught whither they are to come Let them be made Christians when they may be able to know Christ For what is this to the purpose of our Saviour who checked his Disciples for hindering those from coming to him who were brought to him before they were in a condition to learn who in all probability were brought to him in their Parents arms and were both taken by him into his own and blessed by him even then For if the Disciples were check'd for going about to hinder such Children his meaning was that they should suffer such to come unto him and not keep them back from coming till they ceased to be such But of such force it seems was that Text then thought that some reply however must be made to it Or the deference men had for the Church that urged it would have spoil'd his device of delaying the Baptism of them till they came of years Which will make it so much the more reasonable to enquire what there is in the Text it self which might justifie the confidence of the one or give occasion to the impertinent answer of the other For the better discovery whereof we are to know that when certain persons not named but it seems who look'd upon our Saviour as a man of God brought their Children to Christ that he might touch them that is to say as our Saviour expounded their meaning that he might lay his hands upon them and bless them His Disciples whether as looking upon it as no way beseeming their Master to concern himself about Children * Aret. in locum Primum rem Christo indignam judicare videntur nam judicio ratione carent Christum non intelligunt Deinde majora sunt quae agat adsunt enim turbae quas docere debet Major hic fructus major etiam dignitas labor or that he had greater business then in hand even the instructing of the Elder sort rebuked those that brought them for that their suppos'd unreasonable desire and offer But as our Saviour who better understood †Aret. ubi supra Sed expendi debet Christi officium qui pro omnium salute natus est in hunc mundum Deinde infantes etiam ad foedus dei pertinent Nam Abraamo dixit Ero tui seminis tui post te Deus Et quia una est ratio salutis unum ostium una janua debuit etiam infantum haberi ratio his own salutary office and Childrens pertaining to the Covenant did with as much or more displeasure rebuke them for that their rebuke and signified it both by his countenance and voice So he charged them that they should by no means hinder Children from coming unto him * Aretius iterum Est enim ratio cur arcendi à Christo non sint Quia talium est regnum coelorum hoc est sunt haeredes vitae aeternae â—â—go à Christo qui janua est ad vitam non debent arceri Deinde cum talium sit regnum dei ergo horum magis est ad quorum similitudinem alii ut accipiant iidem redire debent because the Kingdom of God belong'd to such as they Thereby intimating that even those Children had a right unto it and were not therefore to be hindred from coming to him who was the way or rather the gate into it For if the Kingdom of God belong'd to such as they much more to those Children to whom elder persons ought to become 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 natuturally 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 aliquid hic urgent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talium non horum Nam communem ostendit modum justificationis c. Amplius igitur aliquid dicere voluit hos 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
blessings and the means that was intended to exhibit them among us as the posterity of Abraham did their Children to the like blessings and that means which among them was intended for the exhibition of them II. The Baptism of Infants being thus made out from the Scripture and by such passages thereof also as cannot be easily avoided Pass we on to enquire what countenance it hath from Antiquity as which if it be any thing considerable will the more firmly establish it Where the first that I shall take notice of is a passage of Justin Martyr I do not mean what is commonly quoted out of his Questions and Answers ad Orthodoxos (r) Quaest 56. it being questionable enough (Å¿) Vid. Coci Censur quorund Script in Script Just Martyr whether that Book were his or at least as we now have it but what may be found in his second Aplogy (t) Pag. 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and concerning which there is not any the least controversie in the Church In which Apology speaking of the excellency of the Christian Law above that of any humane ones in setting bounds to the carnal desires of men he hath these words And there are many men and women of sixty and seventy years of Age who having from their Childhood been discipled unto Christ have all their time continued uncorrupt or Virgins And I boast that I can shew such among all sorts of men For why should we also speak of that innumerable multitude of men who have chang'd from intemperance and so have learnt these things For Christ called not the just or temperate to repentance but the ungodly and intemperate and unjust Which words to an unbiast Reader cannot well signifie less than Childrens being then baptiz'd into Christianity That Father not only making mention of certain persons who had from their childhood been discipled unto Christ which we know from our Saviour (u) Matt. 28.19 to have been effected by Baptism and continu'd too all their time uncorrupt or Virgins which yet is a comtent proof of their being baptiz'd when Children but opposing them to such persons as had chang'd from intemperance and rather learnt that purity afterward than been discipled into it at the very first That opposition of his making it yet more evident that he meant such persons as were discipled to Christ from their very childhood and before they were in a capacity of learning him and his doctrine by instruction To this is Justin Martyr subjoyn we another of Irenaeus which is yet more clear for the Baptism of Infants For Christ saith that Father (w) Omnes enim venit per semetipsum salvare Omnes inquam qui per eum renascuntur in Deum infantes parvulos pueros jâ—venes seniores Ideo per omnem venit aetatem infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes in parvulis parvulus sanctificans hanc ipsam habentes aetatem Adv. haeres li.a.c. 39. came to save all persons by himself All I say who by him are born again to God Infants and little ones and Children and Young Men and Old Therefore he came in every Age and was made an Infant to Infants sanctifying Infants and a little one among little ones sanctifying those of that age c. Where we have him not only affirming Christ to have come to save Infants as well as others yea to have been made an Infant himself to sanctifie them which shews them in his opinion to have had a general right to the blessings of Christianity but speaking of several of them as born again unto God by Christ which is as much as to say baptiz'd That as it is the way by which all are to be so born even by the Doctrine of (x) Joh. 3. â— our Saviour so the way too by which the Antients apprehended it to be effected For thus where Justin Martyr intreats of the Baptism of those of his time he tells us (y) Apolog. 2. p. 93. 4. that they who were to partake of it were brought by the Christians to a place where water was and there regenerated after that manner of regeneration wherewith they themselves had been And to the same purpose also this very Irenaeus (z) Adv. haereâ— li. 1. c. 18. because not only attributing the same regeneration to it but representing it as the Doctrine of the Gnosticks as to that Baptism which they set up against our Saviour's that it was necessary for those who had received perfect knowledge to be so regenerated into that vertue or power which is above all things Which passage with the former one makes it yet more manifest that Irenaeus meant by such Infants as were born again by Christ unto God such as had been regenerated by Baptism and consequently that the Baptism of such was no stranger in his days I think I shall not need to insist upon the days of Tertullian because what the practice of that time was is evident from his disputing against Infant Baptism or at least advising to delay it There being no place for such a dispute or advice if the thing it self had not been then in use and in use too as he himself intimates in obedience to that precept of our Saviour which enjoyn'd the suffering little Children to come unto him in order to their partaking of his blessing and Kingdom And indeed as Origen who liv'd not long after him doth not only assert the same practice of infant Baptism but affirm * In Rom. 16. the Church to have receiv'd it as a Tradition from the Apostles So Tertullian's Scholar and great admirer S. Cyprian †Epist 59. gives such an ample testimony to it that I know not what need to be added to it For one Fidus having question'd him concerning the cause of Infants who he thought ought not to be baptiz'd till the eighth day according to the law of Circumcision S. Cyprian in a Council of sixty six Bishops made this following Answer to his demand That he and the whole Council that was with him had quite other thoughts of that affair they universally judging that the mercy and grace of God was to be deny'd to none that was born of men And again that if remission of sins were upon the faith of the parties given to the greatest Offenders neither was any of them debar'd from Baptism and grace how much less ought a new-born Infant to be debarred of it who had no other sin to answer for but what he drew from Adam and who came so much the more easily to receive pardon of sin because it was not his own proper sins but those of others that were to be forgiven him For which cause the opinion of the Council was that no one ought to be debar'd by them from Baptism and the Grace of God and that if that were to be observ'd and retain'd as to all persons whatsoever it was much more to be observ'd and retain'd as to Infants
in it to confine it to the Males as Circumcision had but on the contrary is equally fitted to be administred to both Sexes And secondly because it appears from what was before said (c) Part 1. concerning the Rite of Baptism among the Jews that the want of Circumcision was afterwards suppli'd to the Females by Baptism and they thereby even in their Infancy initiated into the same Covenant with the other For this shews yet more how little reason there is to argue from Circumcisions being confin'd to the Males that therefore Baptism ought to be so Or rather how much more reason there is to extend it both to Male and Female and so to all of the same Infant estate If therefore there be any thing to hinder our arguing from Circumcision in this particular it must be it s not being pretended by our selves to be a direction as to the day of its administration as well as to the persons to whom it ought to be administred But beside that there is a vast difference between the persons to whom any Sacrament is to be given and the precise day on which it is to be so and therefore not the like reason for Circumcision's directing as to this as there is for its directing as to the other What Circumcision directs as to the case of Infants is more a favour than a command whereas what is directed as to the precise day is rather a command than a favour Now it being a rul'd case That Favours are rather to be enlarg'd than restrain'd especially under a Dispensation which is so manifestly gracious as that of the Gospel is there may be reason enough for our interpreting what is said concerning the Circumcision of Infants to the equal or rather greater benefit of Infants now and consequently that Sacrament which came in place of it to be rather hastned than deferred to a day to which possibly they may not arrive but however to be given them as soon as a convenient opportunity presents it self Add hereunto the difference there is between Circumcision and Baptism as to the trouble or danger which may attend the administration of them to such tender bodies as those of Infants are For there being a greater trouble and danger to Infants from the Rite of Circumcision than there is from the Rite of Baptism There might be greater reason for the deferring of that to the eighth day than there is for the deferring of this And what is therefore as to that particular directed concerning Circumcision not to be drawn into example in the matter of Baptism though other more material and more advantagious circumstances are But leaving what is commonly urg'd against the Argument from the Circumcising of Infants because as I suppose sufficiently assoil'd by the foregoing discourse Let us take a view of such Objections as strike more directly at Infant Baptism or at least of the more material ones Such as I take to be first the want of an express command or direction for the administring of Baptism to Infants Secondly their being incapable of that regeneration which is the great intent and end of Baptism or giving no sutable indications of it afterwards Thirdly their being as incapable of answering what is prerequired to it on the part of the persons to be baptized or is to be performed by them in the receiving of it That which seems to stick much with the Adversaries of Infant Baptism and is accordingly urg'd at all turns against the Friends or Asserters of it is the want of an express command or direction for the administring of Baptism to them Which objection seems to be the more reasonable because Baptism as well as other Sacraments receiving all its force from Institution they may seem to have no right to or benefit by it who appear not by the institution of that Sacrament to be intitled to it but rather by the qualifications which it requires to be excluded from it And possibly more might be of the opinion of the Objecters if there had not been before an express Law for admitting Infants to that righteousness of Faith of which Baptism is a sign and a means of conveyance and for admitting them too by such an outward sign as that of Baptism is But such an express law having been before given by God and that law as notorious as any law in either Testament there was no reason (d) See Stillingfleet's Irenicum Part 1. cap. 1. §. 3. for God to give any such express law for the so administring of Baptism or for us to expect it from him It being easie to collect from the Analogy there is between the two Sacraments and the great graciousness of the present dispensation that what was communicated to the Children of Abraham's posterity by the sign of Circumcision which was then the standing way of administring it was alike intended for the Children of those who were to as good or better purpose the Children of the same Abraham and intended too to be transmitted to them by their particular Sacrament and to which as was before observ'd the great graces of the Gospel were annex'd by our Saviour (e) Joh. 3 5. himself Which Argumentation is so much the more reasonable because it appears by what was but now suggested that our Saviour whose Institution Baptism was gave a sufficient indication of his own kindness to that tender estate yea of his owning those that were of it to have a right to that Kingdom of Heaven to which Baptism by his own appointment was intended to admit men The next great Objection against the Baptism of Infants is their suppos'd incapacity of that regeneration which is the great end and intent of Baptism or giving no suitable indications of it when they begin to be in a natural capacity to exert it The former whereof the Anabaptists argue from the Scripture's speaking of it (f) 1 Pet. 1.23 as produced by the word of truth and other such rational means As the latter by the little appearance there is of it in many of those that are baptiz'd after they arrive at the years of discretion Especially where as it often happens in the Dominion of the Turks they are taken away from their Parents before they come to be of any years and bred up in the Mahumetan Religion For under this they are so far from giving any indications of a Christian regeneration that our Religion hath no greater or more implacable enemies than they As to what is argu'd toward the proof of Infants incapacity of regeneration from the Scriptures speaking of it as produc'd by the word of truth and other such rational ways of procedure I must needs say I do not see why it should be alledg'd in this particular unless it any where intimated that there was no other way of producing it no not in the Souls of Infants For the Scripture speaking to and of men converted from Judaism or Heathenism to Christianity and consequently brought to