baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea so by a double figure foretelling That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath so should all the persons of the Church Men Women and Children be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant he proved that we do not exceed them and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us nor their children ours But after this something was to remain which might not onely consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham but be as a passage from the Fathers thorough the Synagogue to the Church from Abraham by Moses to Christ and that was Circumcision which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace and to be a seal of the righteousness of faith which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males yet it was not to the females and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea yet the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes and to all that were circumcised and the Jews deliver That Sarah and Rebecca when they were adopted into the family of the Church that is of Abraham and Isaac were baptized and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel And that we may think this typical of Christian Baptism the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition that when the Messias would come there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised but should be baptized The Tradition proved true but not for their reason But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of Religion by Baptisms was used by the posterity of Noah or at least very early among the Jews besides the testimonies of their own Doctors I am the rather induced to believe because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion and they c thought Murther Incest Rapes and the worst of Crimes were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} intinctus a baptized person But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions that to baptize and to make disciples are all one and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether John's Baptism was from heaven or of men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from Heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implies also That such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by persons of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till John were but types and preparatory Baptisms and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies John's Baptism called them to believe in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand and Preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins His Baptism remitted no sins but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated the Disciples of Christ finished it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples as John did onely they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Jesus which it is not so likely John did a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms b of Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing In the Name of Iesus and at other times In the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his Resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority though with some difference of Mystery The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of John and by his Baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led onely by outward things might be the better called in and easier inticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy He sublim'd it to higher ends and adorned it with stars of Heaven He made it to signifie greater mysteries to convey greater blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper then the skin and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transferr'd the Rite to greater mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practise was made to pass into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while he
Righteousness the garment of gladness vestment of Light or rather Light it self And for this reason it is that Baptism is not to be repeated because it does at once all that it can do at a hundred times for it admits us to the condition of Repentance and Evangelical Mercy to a state of pardon for our infirmities and sins which we timely and effectually leave and this is a thing that can be done but once as a man can begin but once he that hath once entred in at this gate of life is alwayes in possibility of pardon if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man that which he hath promised to the Son of God And this was expresly delivered and observed by S. Austin That which the Apostle sayes Cleansing him with the washing of water in the word is to be understood that in the same laver of regeneration and word of sanctification all the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed not onely the sins that are past which all are now remitted in Baptism but also those that are contracted afterwards by humane ignorance and infirmity Not that Baptism be repeated as often as we sin but because by this which is once administred is brought to pass that pardon of all sins not onely of those that are past but also those which will be committed afterwards is obtained The Messalians denyed this and it was part of their Heresie in the undervaluing of Baptism and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot in his third Book 195 Epistle to the Count Hermin whither I refer the Reader In proportion to this Doctrine it is that the holy Scripture calls upon us to live a holy life in pursuance of this grace of Baptism And S. Paul recals the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant and the grace of God stipulated in Baptism Ye are all children of God by faith in Iesus Christ that is heirs of the promise and Abrahams seed that promise which cannot be disannulled increased or diminished but is the same to us as it was to Abraham the same before the Law and after Therefore do not you hope to be justified by the Law for you are entred into the Covenant of Faith and are to be justified thereby This is all your hope by this you must stand for ever or you cannot stand at all but by this you may for you are Gods children by faith that is not by the Law or the Covenant of Works And that you may remember whence you are going and return again he proves that they are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ because they have been baptized into Christ and so put on Christ This makes you children and such as are to be saved by faith that is a Covenant not of Works but of Pardon in Jesus Christ the Author and Establisher of this Covenant For this is the Covenant made in Baptism That being justified by his grace we shall be heirs of life eternal for by grace that is by favor remission and forgiveness in Jesus Christ ye are saved This is the onely way that we have of being justified and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of heaven for besides this we have no hopes and all this is stipulated and consigned in Baptism and is of force after our fallings into sin and risings again In pursuance of this the same Apostle declares That the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of baptismal grace and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of or a contradiction to the state of Baptism we are then unpardonable because we are faln from our state of pardon This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrews This is the Covenant I will make in those days I will put my laws in their hearts and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin that is our sins are so pardoned that we need no more oblation we are then made partakers of the death of Christ which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist and representment But the great work is done in Baptism for so it follows Having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Iesus by a new and living way that is by the vail of his flesh his Incarnation But how do we enter into this Baptism is the door and the ground of this confidence for ever for so he addes Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water This is the consignation of this blessed state and the gate to all this mercy Let us therefore hold fast the profession of our faith that is the Religion of a Christian the faith into which we were baptized for that is the faith that justifies and saves vs Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this faith and do all the intermedial works in order to the conservation of it such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints the use of the word and Sacrament is included in the precept mutual Exhortation good Example and the like For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is if we sin against the profession of this faith and hold it not fast but let the faith and the profession go wilfully which afterwards he cals a treading under foot the Son of God a counting the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and a doing despite to the Spirit of Grace viz. which moved upon these waters and did illuminate him in Baptism if we do this there is no more sacrifice for sins no more deaths of Christ into which you may be baptized that is you are faln from the state of pardon and repentance into which you were admitted in Baptism and in which you continue so long as you have not quitted you baptismal Rights and the whole Covenant Contrary to this is that which S. Peter calls making our calling and election sure that is a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism and the grace of the Covenant And between these two states of absolute Apostasie from and intirely adhering to and securing this state of Calling and Election are all the intermedial sins and being overtaken in single faults or declining towards vitious habits which in their several proportions are degrees of danger and insecurity which S. Peter calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a forgetting our Baptism or purification from our sins And in this sense are those words The just shall live by faith that is by that profession which they made in Baptism from which if they swerve not they shall be supported in their spiritual life It is a grace which
Faith together and sometimes otherwise When Philip baptized the Eunuch he onely required of him to believe not to repent But S. Peter when he preached to the Jews and converted them onely required Repentance which although in their case implyed faith yet there was no explicit stipulation for it they had crucified the Lord of life and if they would come to God by Baptism they must renounce their sin that was all was then stood upon It is as the case is or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves In children the case is evident as to the one part which is equally required I mean Repentance The not doing of which cannot prejudice them as to the susception of Baptism because they having done no evil are not bound to repent and to repent is as necessary to the susception of Baptism as Faith is but this shews that they are accidentally necessary that is not absolutely not to all not to Infants and if they may be excused from one duty which is indispensably necessary to Baptism why they may not from the other is a secret which will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it And therefore when our blessed Lord made a stipulation and express Commandment for faith with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not He that believeth not shall be damned the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time for then no man could be converted from infidelity to the Christian faith and from the power of the Devil to the Kingdome of Christ but his present infidelity shall be his final ruine It is not therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not a sentence but a use a praediction and intermination It is not like that saying God is true and every man a lyar Every good and every perfect gift is from above for these are true in every instant without reference to circumstances but He that believeth not shall be damned is a prediction or that which in Rhetorick is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or a use because this is the affirmation of that which usually or frequently comes to pass such as this He that strikes with the sword shall perish by the sword He that robs a Church shall be like a wheel of a vertiginous and unstable estate He that loves wine and oyle shall not be rich and therefore it is a declaration of that which is universally or commonly true but not so that in what instance soever a man is not a believer in that instant it is true to say he is damned for some are called the third some the sixth some the ninth hour and they that come in being first called at the eleventh hour shall have their reward so that this sentence stands true at the day and the Judgement of the Lord not at the judgement or day of man And in the same necessity as faith stands to salvation in the same it stands to Baptism that is to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent Our Baptism shall no more do all its intention unless faith supervene then a man is in possibility of being saved without faith it must come in its due time but is not indispensably necessary in all instants and periods Baptism is the seal of our Election and Adoption and as Election is brought to effect by faith and its consequents so is Baptism but to neither is faith necessary as to its beginning and first entrance To which also I adde this Consideration That actual faith is necessary not to the susception but to the consequent effects of Baptism appears Because the Church and particularly the Apostles did baptize some persons who had not faith but were hypocrites such as were Simon Magus Alexander the Copper-smith Demas and Diotrephes and such was Judas when he was baptized and such were the Gnostick Teachers For the effect depends upon God who knows the heart but the outward susception depends upon them who do not know it which is a certain argument That the same faith that is necessary to the effect of the Sacrament is not necessary to its susception and if it can be administred to hypocrites much more to Infants if to those who really hinder the effect much rather to them that hinder not And if it be objected That the Church does not know but the pretenders have faith but she knows Infants have not I reply That the Church does not know but the pretenders hinder the effect and are contrary to the grace of the Sacrament but she knows that Infants do not The first possibly may receive the grace the other cannot hinder it But beside these things it is considerable That when it is required persons have faith it is true they that require Baptism should give a reason why they do so it was in the case of the Eunuch baptized by Philip But this is not to be required of others that do not ask it and yet they be of the Church and of the Faith for by Faith is also understood the Christian Religion and the Christian Faith is the Christian Religion and of this a man may be though he make no confession of his faith as a man may be of the Church and yet not be of the number of Gods secrets ones and to this more is required then to that to the first it is sufficient that he be admitted by a Sacrament or a Ceremony which is infallibly certain because hypocrites and wicked people ate in the visible Communion of the Church and are reckoned as members of it and yet to them there was nothing done but the Ceremony administred and therefore when that is done to Infants they also ate to be reckoned in the Church Communion And indeed in the examples of Scripture we finde more inserted into the number of Gods family by outward Ceremony then by the inward grace of this number were all those who were circumcised the eighth day who were admitted thither as the womans daughter was cured in the Gospel by the faith of their mother their natural parents or their spiritual To whose faith it is as certain God will take heed as to their faith who brought one to Christ who could not come himself the poor Paralytick for when Christ saw their faith he cured their friend and yet it is to be observed That Christ did use to exact faith actual faith of them that came to him to be cured According to your faith be it unto you The case is equal in its whole kinde And it is considerable what Christ saith to the poor man that came in behalf of his son All things are possible to him that believeth it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his fathers faith and it was so in his case and is possible to any for to faith all
For Baptism is a state of Repentance and pardon for ever This I suppose to be already proved to which I onely adde this Caution That the Pelagians to undervalue the necessity of supervening grace affirmed That Baptism did minister to us grace sufficient to live perfectly and without sin for ever Against this S. Jerome sharply declaims and affirms a Baptismum praeterita donare peccata non futuram servare justitiam that is non statim justum facit omni plenum justitiâ as he expounds his meaning in another place Vetera peccata conscindit novas virtutes non tribuit dimittit à carcere dimisso si laboraverit praemia pollicetur Baptism does not so forgive future sins that we may do what we please or so as we need not labour and watch and fear perpetually and make use of Gods grace to actuate our endevours but puts us into a state of pardon that is in a Covenant of Grace in which so long as we labour and repent and strive to do our duty so long our infirmities are pityed and our sins certain to be pardoned upon their certain conditions that is by virtue of it we are capable of pardon and must work for it and may hope it And therefore Infants have a most certain capacity and proper disposition to Baptism for sin creeps before it can go and little undecencies are soon learned and malice is before their years and they can do mischief and irregularities betimes and though we know not when nor how far they are imputed in every moneth of their lives yet it is an admirable art of the Spirit of grace to put them into a state of pardon that their remedy may at least be as soon as their necessity And therefore Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen advised the Baptism of children to be at three or four years of age meaning that they then begining to have little inadvertencies hasty follies and actions so evil as did need a lavatory But if Baptism hath an influence upon sins in the succeeding portions of our life then it is certain that their being presently innocent does not hinder and ought not to retard the Sacrament and therefore Tertullian's Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum what need Innocents hasten to the remission of sins is soon answered It is true they need not in respect of any actual sins for so they are innocent but in respect of the evils of their nature derived from their original and in respect of future sins in the whole state of their life it is necessary they be put into a state of pardon before they sin because some sin early some sin later and therefore unless they be baptized so early as to prevent the first sins they may chance dye in a sin to the pardon of which they have yet derived no title from Christ 6. The next great effect of Baptism which children can have is the Spirit of Sanctification and if they can be baptized with Water and the Spirit it will be sacriledge to rob them of so holy treasures And concerning this although it be with them as S. Paul sayes of Heirs The heir so long as he is a childe differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all and children although they receive the Spirit of Promise and the Spirit of Grace yet in respect of actual exercise they differ not from them that have them not at all yet this hindres not but they may have them For as the reasonable soul and all its faculties are in children Will and Vnderstanding Passions and Powers of Attraction and Propulsion yet these faculties do not operate or come abroad till time and art observation and experience have drawn them forth into action so may the Spirit of Grace the principle of Christian life be infused and yet lye without action till in its own day it is drawn forth For in every Christian there are three parts concurring to his integral constitution Body and Soul and Spirit and all these have their proper activities and times but every one in his own order first that which is natural then that which is spiritual And as Aristotle said A man first lives the life of a plant then of a beast and lastly of a man is true in this sense and the more spiritual the principle is the longer it is before it operates because more things concur to spiritual actions then to natural and these are necessary and therefore first the other are perfect and therefore last And who is he that so well understands the Philosophy of this third principle of a Christians life the Spirit as to know how or when it is infused and how it operates in all its periods and what it is in its beeing and proper nature and whether it be like the soul or like the faculty or like a habit or how or to what purposes God in all varieties does dispense it These are secrets which none but bold people use to decree and build propositions upon their own dreams That which is certain is that The Spirit is the principle of a new life or a new birth That Baptism is the laver of this new birth That it is the seed of God and may lye long in the furrows before it springs up That from the faculty to the act the passage is not alwayes sudden and quick That the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance that is of Resurrection to eternal life which inheritance because children we hope shal have they cannot be denied to have its Seal and Earnest that is if they shall have all they are not to be denyed a part That children have some effects of the Spirit and therefore do receive it and are baptized with the Spirit and therefore may with Water which thing is therefore true and evident because some children are sanctified as Jeremy and the Baptist and therefore all may And because all signification of persons is an effect of the holy Ghost there is no peradventure but they that can be sanctified by God can in that capacity receive the holy Ghost and all the ground of dissenting here is onely upon a mistake because Infants do no act of holiness they suppose them incapable of the grace of Sanctification Now Sanctification of children is their adoption to the inheritance of sons their presentation to Christ their consignation to Christs service and to Resurrection their being put into a possibility of being saved their restitution to Gods favour which naturally that is as our nature is depraved and punished they could not have And in short the case is this Original Righteousness was in Adam after the manner of nature but it was an act or effect of grace and by it men were not made but born righteous the inferior faculties obeyed the superior the minde was whole and right and conformable to the Divine Image the Reason and the Will alwayes concurring the Will
enjoy their pleasure in the Acrostich but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article Nos pisciculi secundum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nostrum Jesum Christum in aquâ nascimur Christ whom you call a fish we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour and we if you please are the little fishes for we are born in water thence we derive our spiritual life And because from henceforward we are a new creation the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors and at their entrance into Baptism the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives Nec quicquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere Deos exuere patriam parentes liberos fratres vilia habere said Tacitus of the Christians which was true in the sense onely as Christ said He that doth not hate father or mother for my sake is not worthy of me that is he that doth not hate them prae me rather then forsake me forsake them is unworthy of me 4. In Baptism all our sins are pardoned according to the words of a Prophet I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness The Catechumen descends into the font a sinner he arises purified he goes down the son of death he comes up the son of the resurrection he enters in the son of folly and praevarication he returns the son of reconciliation he stoops down the childe of wrath and ascends the heir of mercy he was the childe of the Devil and now he is the servant and the son of God They are the words of Ven. Bede concerning this Mystery And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font which is so prettily contriv'd that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner and be exactly the same {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord wash my sin and not my face onely And so it is intended and promised Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins and call on the Name of the Lord said Ananias to Saul for Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with the washing of water in the word that is Baptism in the Christian Religion and therefore Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum a compendious laver that is an intire cleansing the soul in that one action justly and rightly performed In the rehearsal of which doctrine it was not an unpleasant Etymology that Anastasius Sinaita gave of Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in which our sins are thrown off and they fall like leeches when they are full of blood and water or like the chains from S. Peters hands at the presence of the Angel Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an intire full forgiveness of sins so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny Omnia Daemonis arma His merguntur aquis quibus ille renascitur Infant Qui captivus erat the captivity of the soul is taken away by the blood of Redemption and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters and what the flames of Hell are expiating or punishing to eternal ages that is washed off quickly in the Holy Font and an eternal debt paid in an instant for so sure as the Egyptians were drowned in the Red sea so sure are our sins washed in this holy flood for this is a Red sea too these waters signifie the blood of Christ these are they that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The blood of Christ cleanseth us the water cleanseth us the Spirit purifies us the Blood by the Spirit the Spirit by the Water all in Baptism and in pursuance of that baptismal state These three are they that bear record in earth the Spirit the Water and the blood {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} these three agree in one or are to one purpose they agree in Baptism and in the whole pursuance of the assistances which a Christian needs all dayes of his life And therefore S. Cyril calls Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Antitype of the Passions of Christ it does preconsign the death of Christ and does the infancy of the work of grace but not weakly it brings from death to life and though it brings us but to the birth in the new life yet that is a greater change then is in all the periods of our growth to manhood to a perfect man in Christ Jesus 5. Baptism does not onely pardon our sins but puts us into a state of pardon for the time to come For Baptism is the beginning of the New life and an admission of us into the Evangelical Covenant which on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endevour to glorifie God by Faith and Obedience and on Gods part he will pardon what is past assist us for the future and not measure us by grains and scruples or exact our duties by the measure of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand So that by Baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the graces of the Gospel that is that our pardon be continued and our piety be a state of Repentance And therefore that Baptism which in the Nicene Creed we profess to be for the remission of sins is called in the Jerusalem Creed The Baptism of Repentance that is it is the entrance of a new life the gate to a perpetual change and reformation all the way continuing our title to and hopes of forgiveness of sins And this excellency is clearly recorded by S. Paul The kindeness and love of God our Saviour toward man hath appeared not by works in righteousness which we have done that 's the formality of the Gospel-Covenant not to be exacted by the strict measures of the Law but according to his mercy he saved us that is by gentleness and remissions by pitying and pardoning us by relieving and supporting us because he remembers that we are but dust and all this mercy we are admitted to and is conveyed to us {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by the laver of regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost And this plain evident doctrine was observed explicated and urged against the Messalians who said that Baptism was like a razor that cut away all the sins that were past or presently adhering but not the sins of our future life {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This Sacrament promises more and greater things It is the earnest of future good things the type of the Resurrection the communication of the Lords Passion the partaking of his Resurrection the robe of
by vertue of the Covenant consign'd in Baptism does like a Centre transmit effluxes to all the periods and portion of our life our whole life all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this This consideration is of great use besides many other things to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferr'd their Baptism till their death-bed Because Baptism is a laver of sanctification and drowns all our sins and buries them in the grave of our Lord they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism for unless they were strangely preventedly a sudden accident a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition but early some of them durst not take it much less in the beginning of their years that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth Baptism hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the dayes of our folly and infirmity and so long as we have not been baptized so long we are out of the state of pardon and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins if we have taken it in the beginning of our dayes 5. The next benefit of Baptism which is also a verification of this is a sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit spiritus amnem Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas Concipit unda Deum sanctumque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem The holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism and makes them prolifical apt to produce children unto God and therefore Saint Leo compares the Font of Baptism to the Womb of the blessed Virgin when it was replenished with the holy Spirit And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord his ministers baptize with water our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery with giving the holy Spirit They are joyned together by S. Paul We are by one spirit baptized into one body that is admitted into the Church by Baptism of Water and the Spirit This is that which our blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit by Water we are sacramently dead and buried by the Spirit we are made alive But because these are mysterious expressions and according to the style of Scripture high and secret in spiritual significations therefore that we may understand what these things signifie we must consider it by its real effects and what it produces upon the Soul of a man 1. It is the suppletory of original Righteousness by which Adam was at first gracious with God and which he lost by his prevarication It was in him a principle of wisdome and obedience a relation between God and himself a title to the extraordinary mercies of God and a state of friendship when he fell he was discomposed in all the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken and it so continued in the whole life of man which was stained with the evils of this folly and the consequent mischiefs and therefore when we began the world again entring into the Articles of a new life God gave us his Spirit to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural end which God at first designed to us And therefore as our Baptism is a separation of us from unbelieving people so the descent of the holy Spirit upon us in our Baptism is a consigning or marking us for God as the sheep of his pasture as the souldiers of his Army as the servants of his houshold we are so separated from the world that we are appropriated to God so that God expects of us duty and obedience and all sins are acts of rebellion and undutifulness Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and John the Baptist from their mothers womb that is God took them to his own service by an early designation and his Spirit mark'd them to a holy Ministery To this also relates that of S. Paul whom God by a decree separated from his mothers womb to the Ministery of the Gospel the decree did antedate the act of the Spirit which did not descend upon him until the day of his Baptism What these persons were in order to exterior Ministeries that all the faithful are in order to faith and obedience consigned in Baptism by the Spirit of God to a perpetual relation to God in a continual service and title to his Promises And in this sense the Spirit of God is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} * a seal in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Water washes the body and the Spirit seals the soul viz. to a participation of those Promises which he hath made and to which we receive a title to our Baptism 2. The second effect of the Spirit is Light or Illumination that is the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Author of holy thoughts and firm perswasions and fets to his seal that the Word of God is true into the belief of which we are then baptized and makes Faith to be a grace and the Understanding resigned and the Will confident and the Assent stronger then the premises and the propositions to be believed because they are belov'd and we are taught the wayes of godliness after a new manner that is we are made to perceive the secrets of the Kingdome and to love Religion and to long for heaven and heavenly things and to despise the world and to have new resolutions and new perceptions and new delicacies in order to the establishment of Faith and its increment and perseverance {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God sits in the soul when it is illuminated in Baptism as if he sate in his Throne that is he rules by a firm perswasion and intire principles of obedience And therefore Baptism is called in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the baptized {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} illuminated Call to minde the former dayes in which ye were illuminated and the same phrase is in the 6. to the Hebrews where the parallel places expound each other For that which S. Paul calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} once illuminated he calls after {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a receiving the knowledge of the truth and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of Baptism the Apostle expresses it still by its Synonymas Tasting of the heavenly gift and made partakers of the holy Ghost sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water All which also are a syllabus or collection of the several
effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism But we are now instancing in that which relates most properly to the understanding in which respect the holy Spirit also is called anointing or unction and the mystery is explicated by S. John The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things 3. The holy Spirit descends upon us in Baptism to become the principle of a new life to become a holy seed springing up to holiness and is called by S. John {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the seed of God and the purpose of it we are taught by him Whosoever is born of God that is he that is regenerated and entred into this new birth doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life and now that he by the Spirit is born anew he hath in him that principle which if it be cherished will grow up to life to life eternal And this is the Spirit of Sanctification the victory of the world the deletery of concupiscence the life of the soul and the perpetuall principle of grace sown in our spirits in the day of our adoption to be the sons of God and members of Christs body But take this mystery in the words of S. Basil There are two ends proposed in Baptism to wit to abolish the body of sin that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death and to live in the Spirit and to have our fruit to Sanctification The water represents the image of death receiving the body in its bosome as in a sepulchre But the quickning Spirit sends upon us a vigorous {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} power or efficacy even from the beginning renewing our souls from the death of sin unto life For as our mortification is perfected in the water so the Spirit works life in us To this purpose is the discourse of S. Paul having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of Christ he addes this as the Corollary of all He that is dead is freed from sin * that is being mortified and buried in the waters of Baptism we have a new life of righteousness put into us we are quitted from the dominion of sin and are planted together in the likeness of Christs Resurrection that henceforth we should not serve sin 4. But all these intermedial blessings tend to a glorious Conclusion for Baptism does also consign us to a holy Resurrection It takes the sting of death from us by burying us together with Christ and takes off sin which is the sting of death and then we shall be partakers of a blessed Resurrection This we are taught by S. Paul Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection That declares the real event in its due season But because Baptism consigns it and admits us to a title to it we are said with S. Paul to be risen with Christ in Baptism buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him thorough the faith of the operation of God which hath raised him from the dead which expression I desire to be remembred that by it we may better understand those other sayings of the Apostle of putting on Christ in Baptism putting on the new man c. for these onely signifie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the design on Gods part and the endevour and duty on mans we are then consigned to our duty and to our reward we undertake one and have a title to the other and though men of ripeness and reason enter instantly into their portion of work and have present use of the assistances and something of their reward in hand yet we cannot conclude that those that cannot do it presently are not baptized rightly because they are not in capacity to put on the new man in righteousness that is in an actual holy life for they may put on the new man in Baptism just as they are risen with Christ which because it may be done by faith before it is done in real event and it may be done by Sacrament and design before it be done by a proper faith so also may our putting on the new man be It is done sacramentally and that part which is wholly the work of God does onely antedate the work of man which is to succeed in its due time and is after the manner of preventing grace but this is by the by In order to the present article Baptism is by Theodoret called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a participation of the Lords Resurrection 5. And lastly by Baptism we are saved that is we are brought from death to life here and that is the first Resurrection and we are brought from death to life hereafter by vertue of the Covenant of the state of Grace into which in Baptism we enter and are preserved from the second death and receive a glarious and an eternal life He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved said our blessed Saviour and according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost After these great blessings so plainly testified in Scripture and the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which are regularly consigned and bestowed in Baptism I shall less need to descend to temporal blessings or rare contingencies or miraculous events or probable notices of things less certain of this nature are those stories recorded in the writings of the Church that Constantine was cured of a Leprosie in Baptism Theodosius recovered of his disease being baptized by the Bishop of Thessalonica and a paralytic Jew was cured as soon as he became a Christian and was baptized by Atticus of C. P. and Bishop Arnulph baptizing a Leper also cured him said Vincentius Bellovacensis It is more considerable which is generally and piously believed by very many eminent persons in the Church That at our Baptism God assigns an Angel Guardian for then the Catechumen being made a Servant and a Brother to the Lord of Angels is sure not to want the aids of them who pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lord and that this guard and ministery is then appointed when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the Promises and their title to Salvation is hugely agreeable to the words of S. Paul Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation where it appears that the title to the inheritance is the title to this ministery and therefore must begin and end together But I insist not
on this though it seems to me hugely probable All these blessings put into one syllabus have given to Baptism many honorable appellatives in Scripture and other divine Writers calling it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sacramentum vitae aeternae salutis A new birth a regeneration a renovation a charet carrying us to God the great Circumcision a Circumcision made without hands the Key of the Kingdome the Paranymph of the Kingdome the earnest of our inheritance the answer of a good Conscience the robe of light the Sacrament of a new life and of eternal salvation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This is coelestial water springing from the sides of the Rock upon the which the Church was built when the Rock was smitten with the Rod of God It remains now that we inquire what concerns our duty and in what persons or in what dispositions Baptism produces all these glorious effects For the Sacraments of the Church work in the vertue of Christ but yet onely upon such as are servants of Christ and hinder not the work of the Spirit of grace For the water of the Font and the Spirit of the Sacrament are indeed to wash away our sins and to purifie our souls but not unless we have a minde to be purified The Sacrament works pardon for them that hate their sin and procures grace for them that love it They that are guilty of sins must repent of them and renounce them and they must make a profession of the faith of Christ and give or be given up to the obedience of Christ and then they are rightly disposed He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved saith Christ and S. Peter call'd out to the whole assembly Repent and be baptized every one of you Concerning this Justin Martyr gives the same account of the faith and practise of the Church {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. Whosoever are perswaded and believe those things to be true which are delivered and spoken by us and undertake to live accordingly they are commanded to fast and pray and to ask of God remission of their former sins we also praying together with them and fasting Then they are brought to us where water is and are regenerated in the same manner of regeneration by which we our selves are regenerated For in Baptism S. Peter observes there are two parts the body and the spirit that is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the putting away the filth of the flesh that is the material washing and this is Baptism no otherwise then a dead corps is a man the other is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the answer of a good conscience towards God that is the conversion of the soul to God that 's the effective disposition in which Baptism does save us And in the same sense are those sayings of the Primitive Doctors to be understood Anima non lavatione sed responsione sancitur The soul is not healed by washing viz. alone but by the answer the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in S. Peter the correspondent of our part of the Covenant for that 's the perfect sense of this unusual expression And the effect is attributed to this and denied to the other when they are distinguished So Justin Martyr affirms the onely Baptism that can heal us is Repentance and the knowledge of God For what need is there of that Baptism that can onely cleanse the flesh and the body Be washed in your flesh from wrath and covetousness from envy and hatred and behold the body is pure And Clemens Alexandrinus upon the Proverbial saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be not pure in the laver but in the minde addes I suppose that an exact and a firm repentance is a sufficient purification to a man if judging and considering our selves for the facts we have done before we proceed to that which is before us considering that which follows and cleansing or washing our minde from sensual affections and from former sins Just as we use to deny the effect to the instrumental cause and attribute it to the principal in the manner of speaking when our purpose is to affirm this to be the principal and of chief influence So we say It is not the good Lute but the skilful hand that makes the musick It is not the body but the soul that is the man and yet he is not the man without both For Baptism is but the material part in the Sacrament it is the Spirit that giveth life whose work is faith and repentance begun by himself without the Sacrament and consigned in the Sacrament and actuated and increased in the cooperation of our whole life and therefore Baptism is called in the Jerusalem Creed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins and by Justin Martyr {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Baptism of Repentance and the knowledge of God which was made for the sins of the people of God He explains himself a little after {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Baptism that can onely cleanse them that are penitent In sacramentis Trinitati occurrit Fides credentium professio quae apud acta conficitur Angelorum ubi miscentur coelestia spiritualia semina ut sancto germine nova possit renascentium indoles procreari ut dum Trinitas cum fide concordat qui natus fuerit saeculo renascatur spiritualitèr Deo Sic fit hominum Pater Deus sancta sit Mater ecclesia said Optatus The faith and profession of the Believers meets with the ever-blessed Trinity and is recorded in the Register of Angels where heavenly and spiritual seeds are mingled that from so holy a Spring may be produced a new nature of the regeneration that while the Trinity viz. that is invocated upon the baptized meets with the faith of the Catechumen he that was born to the world may be born spiritually to God So God is made a Father to the man and the holy Church a Mother Faith and Repentance strip the old man naked and make him fit for Baptism and then the holy Spirit moving upon the waters cleanses the soul and makes it to put on the new man who grows up to perfection and a spititual life to a life of glory by our verification of the undertaking in Baptism on our part and the graces of the Spirit on the other For the waters pierce no further then the skin till the person puts off his affection to the sin that he hath contracted and then he may say Aquae intraverunt usque ad animam meam The waters are entred even unto my soul to purifie and cleanse it by the washing of water and the renewing by the holy Spirit The sum is this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} being baptized we are illuminated
being illuminated we are adopted to the inheritance of sons being adopted we are promoted towards perfection and being perfected we are made immortal Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit exeat inde Semideus tactis citò nobilitetur in undis This is the whole Doctrine of Baptism as it is in it self considered without relation to rare circumstances or accidental cases and it will also serve to the right understanding of the reasons why the Church of God hath in all ages baptized all persons that were within her power for whom the Church could stipulate that they were or might be relatives of Christ sons of God heirs of the Promises and partners of the Covenant and such as did not hinder the work of Baptism upon their souls And such were not onely persons of age and choice but the Infants of Christian Parents For the understanding and verifying of which truth I shall onely need to apply the parts of the former Discourse to their particular case premising first these Propositions PART II. Of Baptizing INFANTS BAPTISM is the Key in Christs hand and therefore opens as he opens and shuts by his rule and as Christ himself did not do all his blessings and effects unto every one but gave to every one as they had need so does Baptism Christ did not cure all mens eyes but them onely that were blinde Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance that is they that lived in the fear of God according to the Covenant in which they were debtors were indeed improved and promoted higher by Christ but not called to that repentance to which he called the vitious Gentiles and the adulterous persons among the Jews and the hypocritical Pharisees There are some so innocent that they need no repentance saith the Scripture meaning That though they do need contrition for their single acts of sin yet they are within the state of grace and need not repentance as it is a conversion of the whole man and so it is in Baptism which does all its effects upon them that need them all and some upon them that need but some and therefore as it pardons sins to them that have committed them and do repent and believe so to the others who have not committed them it does all the work which is done to the others above or besides that pardon 2. When the ordinary effect of a Sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument yet the Sacrament is still as obligatory as before not for so many reasons or necessities but for the same Commandment Baptism is the first ordinary Current in which the Spirit moves and descends upon us and where Gods Spirit is they are the sons of God for Christs Spirit descends upon none but them that are his and yet Cornelius who had recieved the holy Spirit and was heard by God and visited by an Angel and accepted in his alms and fastings and prayers yet was tyed to the susception of Baptism To which may be added That the receiving the effects of Baptism before-haud was used as an argument the rather to minister to Baptism The effect of which consideration is this That Baptism and its effect may be separated and do not alwayes go in conjunction the effect may be before and therefore much rather may it be after its susception the Sacrament operating in the vertue of Christ even as the Spirit shall move according to that saying of S. Austin Sacrosancto lavacro inchoata innovatio novi hominis perficiendo perficitur in aliis citiùs in aliis tardiùs And S. Bernard Lavari quidem citò possumus sed ad sanandum multâ curatione opus est The work of regeneration that is begun in the Ministery of Baptism is perfected in some sooner and in some later we may soon be washed but to be healed is a work of a longcure 3. The dispositions which are required to the ordinary susception of Baptism are not necessary to the efficacy or required to the nature of the Sacrament but accidentally and because of the superinduced necessities of some men And therefore the conditions are not regularly to be required but in those accidents It was necessary for a Gentile Proselyte to repent of his sins and to believe in Moses Law before he could be circumcised but Abraham was not tyed to the same conditions but onely to faith in God but Isaac was not tyed to so much and Circumcision was not of Moses but of the Fathers and yet after the sanction of Moses Law men were tyed to Conditions which were then made necessary to them that entred into the Covenant but not necessary to the nature of the Covenant it self And so it is in the susception of Baptism if a sinner enters into the Font it is necessary he be stripp'd of those appendages which himself sewed upon his Nature and then Repentance is a necessary disposition If his understanding hath been a stranger to Religion polluted with evil Principles and a false Religion it is necessary he have an actual faith that he be given in his understanding up to the obedience of Christ and the reason of these is plain Because in these persons there is a disposition contrary to the state and effects of Baptism and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries Faith and Repentance that they may be reduced to the state of pure receptives And this is the sense of those words of our blessed Saviour Vnless ye become like one of these little ones ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven that is ye cannot be admitted into the Gospel-Covenant unless all your contrarieties and impediments be taken from you and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from heaven And this Proposition relies upon a great Example and a certain Reason The Example is our blessed Saviour who was Nullius poenitentiae debitor he had committed no sin and needed no repentance he needed not to be saved by faith for of faith he was the Author and Finisher and the great object and its perfection and reward and yet he was baptized by the Baptism of John the Baptism of Repentance And therefore it is certain that Repentance and Faith are not necessary to the susception of Baptism but necessary to some persons that are baptized For it is necessary we should much consider the difference If the Sacrament in any person may be justly received in whom such dispositions are not to be found then the dispositions are not necessary or intrinsecal to the susception of the Sacrament and yet some persons coming to this Sacrament may have such necessities of their own as will make the Sacrament ineffectual without such dispositions These I call necessary to the person but not to the Sacrament that is necessary to all such but not necessary to all absolutely And faith is necessary sometimes where Repentance is not and sometimes Repentance and
actions It is certain that they that can receive the new birth are capable of it the effect of it is a possibility of being saved and arriving to a supernatural felicity If Infants can receive this effect then also the new birth without which they cannot cannot receive the effect And if they can receive salvation the effect of the new birth what hinders them but they may receive that that is in order to that effect and ordained onely for it and which is nothing of it self but in its institution and relation and which may be received by the same capacity in which one may be created that is a passivity or a capacity obediential 4. Concerning pardon of sins which is one great effect of Baptism it is certain that Infants have not that benefit which men of sin and age may receive He that hath a sickly stomach drinks wine and it not onely refreshes his spirits but cures his stomach He that drinks wine and hath not that disease receives good by his wine though it does not minister to so many needs it refreshes him though it does not cure him and when oyle is poured upon a mans head it does not alwayes heal a wound but sometimes makes him a chearful countenance sometimes it consigns him to be a King or a Priest So it is in Baptism it does not heal the wounds of actual sins because they have not committed them but it takes off the evil of Original sin whatsoever is imputed to us by Adams prevarication is washed off by the death of the second Adam into which we are baptized But concerning Original sin because there are so many disputes which may intricate the Question I shall make use onely of that which is confessed on both sides and material to our purpose Death came upon all men by Adams sin and the necessity of it remains upon us as an evil consequent of the disobedience For though death is natural yet it was kept off from man by Gods favour which when he lost the banks were broken and the water reverted to its natural course and our nature became a curse and death a punishment Now that this also relates to Infants so far is certain because they are sick and dye This the Pelagians denied not But to whomsoever this evil descended upon them also a remedy is provided by the second Adam That as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive that is at the day of Judgement then death shall be destroyed In the mean time death hath a sting and a bitterness a curse it is and an express of the Divine Anger and if this sting be not taken away here we shall have no participation of the final victory over death Either therefore Infants must be for ever without remedy in this evil consequent of their Fathers sin or they must be adopted into the participation of Christs death which is the remedy Now how can they partake of Christs death but by Baptism into his death For if there be any spiritual way fancied it will by a stronger argument admit them to Baptism for if they can receive spiritual effects they can also receive the outward Sacrament this being denyed onely upon pretence they cannot have the other If there be no spiritual way extraordinary then the ordinary way is onely left for them If there be an extraordinary let it be shewn and Christians will be at rest concerning their children One thing onely I desire to be observed That Pelagius denyed Original sin but yet denyed not the necessity of Infants Baptism and being accused of it in an Epistle to Pope Innocent the first he purged himself of the suspicion and allowed the practise but denyed the inducement of it which shews that their arts are weak that think Baptism to be useless to Infants if they be not formally guilty of the prevarication of Adam By which I also gather that it was so universal so primitive a practise to baptize Infants that it was greater then all pretences to the contrary for it would much have conduced to the introducing his opinion against Grace and Original sin if he had destroyed that practise which seemed so very much to have its greatest necessity from the doctrine he denyed But against Pelagius and against all that follow the parts of his opinion it is of good use which S. Austine Prosper and Fulgentius argue If Infants are punished for Adams sin then they are also guilty of it in some sense Nimis enim impium est hoc de Dei sentire justitiâ quod à praevaricatione liberos cum reis voluerit esse damnatos So Prosper Dispendia quae flentes nascendo testantur dicito quo merito sub justissimo omnipotentissimo judice eis si nullum peccatum attrahant arrogentur said S. Austin For the guilt of sin signifies nothing but the obligation to the punishment and he that feels the evil consequent to him the sin is imputed not as to all the same dishonour or moral accounts but to the more material to the natural account and in holy Scripture the taking off the punishment is the pardon of the sin and in the same degree the punishment is abolished in the same God is appeased and then the person stands upright being reconciled to God by his grace Since therefore Infants have the punishment of sin it is certain the sin is imputed to them and therefore they need being reconciled to God by Christ and if so then when they are baptized into Christs death and into his Resurrection their sins are pardoned because the punishment is taken off the sting of natural death is taken away because Gods anger is removed and they shall partake of Christs Resurrection which because Baptism does signifie and consign they also are to be baptized To which also adde this appendant Consideration That whatsoever the Sacraments do consign that also they do convey and minister they do it that is God by them does it lest we should think the Sacraments to be meer illusions and abusing us by deceitful ineffective signs and therefore to Infants the grace of a title to a Resurrection and Reconciliation to God by the death of Christ is conveyed because it signifies and consigns this to them more to the life and analogy of resemblance then Circumcision to the Infant sons of Israel I end this Consideration with the words of Nazianzen {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Our birth by Baptism does cut off every unclean appendage of our natural birth and leads us to a celestial life and this in children is therefore more necessary because the evil came upon them without their own act of reason and choice and therefore the grace and remedy ought not to stay the leisure of dull Nature and the Formalities of the Civill Law 5. The Baptism of Infants does to them the greatest part of that benefit which belongs to the remission of sins
redeemed and washed with the blood of the Holy Lamb who was slain for all from the beginning of the world After all this it is not inconsiderable that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments which is observeable in many instances She appointed what persons she pleased and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery The Apostles first dispensed all things and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the word of God and prayer and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to baptize when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch to the work of preaching and greater ministeries and accounted that act of the Church the act of Christ saying Christ sent mee not to baptize but to preach the Gospel they used various forms in the ministration of Baptism sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ sometimes expressely invocating the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity one while I baptize thee as in the Latine Church but in Greek Let the servant of Christ be Baptized and in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms in most things hath often changed them as in absolution excommunication and sometimes they baptized people upon their profession of repentance and then taught them as it hapned to the Jaylor and all his family in whose case there was no explicit faith afore hand in the mysteries of Religion so far as appears and yet he and not onely he but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the earthquake was terrible and the fear was pregnant upon them this upon their Masters account as it is likely but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous faith and a new begun repentance * They baptized in rivers or in lavatories by dipping or by sprinkling for so we finde that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern Countries according to the prophecy of Isaiah So shall he sprinkle many Nations according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling and it is fairly relative to the mystery to the sprinkling with the blood of Christ and the watering of the furrows of our souls with the dew of heaven to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto holinesse The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times sometimes but once some Churches use fire in their baptisms so do the Ethiopians and the custome was antient in some places And so in the other Sacrament sometimes she stood and sometimes kneeled and sometimes received it in the mouth and sometimes in the hand one while in leavened another while in unleavened bread sometimes the wine and water were mingled sometimes they were pure and they admitted some persons to it sometimes which at other times she rejected sometimes the Consecration was made by one forme sometimes by another and to conclude sometimes it was given to Infants sometimes not and she had power so to do for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or imployed in the nature and in the end of the institution the Church had power to alter the particulars as was most expedient or conducing to edification and although the after ages of the Church which refused to communicate Infants have found some little things against the lawfulnesse and those ages that used it found out some pretences for its necessity yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities so in all things they followed Christ Certainly there is infinitely more reason why Infants may be communicated then why they may not be baptized And that this discourse may revert to its first intention although there is no record extant of any Church in the world that from the Apostles dayes inclusively to this very day ever refused to baptize their children yet if they had upon any present reason they might also change their practise when the reason should be changed and therefore if there were nothing els in it yet the universal practise of all Churches in all ages is abundantly sufficient to determine us and to legitimate the practise since Christ hath not forbidden it It is sufficient confutation to disagreeing people to use the words of S. Paul we have no such custome nor the Churches of God to suffer children to be strangers from the Covenant of Promise till they shall enter into it as Jews or Turks may enter that is by choise and disputation But although this alone to modest and obedient that is to Christian Spirits be sufficient yet this is more then the question did need It can stand upon its proper foundation Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat anathema est He that refuseth to baptize his Infants shall be in danger of the Councel The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Iesus who in thy own person wert pleased to sanctify the waters of baptism and by thy institution and commandment didst make them effectual to excellent purposes of grace and remedy be pleased to verify the holy effects of baptism to me and all thy servants whose names are dedicated to thee in an early and timely presentation and enable us with thy grace to verify all our promises by which we were bound then when thou didst first make us thy own portion and relatives in the consummation of a holy covenant O be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour in which thou didst plant us by thy grace and admit us by the gates of baptism and let that Spirit which moved upon those holy waters never be absent from us but call upon us and invite us by a perpetual argument and daily solicitations and inducements to holiness that we may never return to the filthiness of sin bnt by the answer of a good conscience may please thee and glorify thy name and doe honour to thy religion and institution in this world and may receive the blessings and the rewards of it in the world to come being presented to thee pure and spotless in the day of thy power when thou shalt lead thy Church to a Kingdome and endless glories Amen The End §. 1. §. 2. Joh. 4. 14. §. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 21. §. 4. §. 5. Vmbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo S. Ambr. §. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 2. §. 7. §. 8. a Tertull. de praescrip. c. 40. b scholiast. in Ju. sat 2. l. 2. c O nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli stumineâ posse putatis aquâ §. 9. John 4. 1. §. 10. Audi quid Scripturae doceant Johannis baptisma non tam peccata dimisit quà m baptisma poenitentiae fuit in peccatorum remissionem idque in futuram remissionē quae esset postea per sanctificationem