vain and needless thing yet I say fear not for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people nor will the Lord forget you his servant for his gracious Covenant sake which he hath also sealed to you in your Baptism because it hath pleased him to make you his servant Moreover as for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and right way Onely fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart Ver. 23 24. And Let my counsel be acceptable to you break off your sins by repentance and by righteousness and your iniquities by turning unto the Lord and calling for mercy upon your poor soul and by shewing mercy unto the poor people if it may be a lengthning of your tranquility Dan. 4.27 Sir without any ifs or ands do you so seriously and uprightly and it will be a lengthning of your tranquility and a stablishing of you in peace of your conscience notwithstanding your former breach of it and of the Covenant of Grace in your despising your Birth-right your Infant-baptism For Behold Gods hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear though your iniquities might have made a perpetual separation 'twixt you and your God Esay 59.1 2. especially those iniquities of separation from Gods Church and Baptism His Covenant of Grace is an Everlasting Covenant the seal of it your Baptism though but once administred loseth not its strength and force and is yet of vertue and benefit for you if you will make use of it yea it will be of continual use and benefit to you if you will return to it and reflect upon it by your faith and lay hold upon the precious things and promises thereof In a word Though you have departed away from your Covenant by breaking of the Seal thereof and slighting your Baptism yet God is not gone from either but what he hath Covenanted and Sealed is and will be ever ready to make good Come therefore and return unto the Lord for you have torn and he will heal you have broken and he will binde up yea and he hath torn and he will heal he hath broken and he will binde up in all your sins and transgressions which are your breaches of the Law and the tearings of Gods Covenant in all his afflictions and chastisements which are his breaches upon you and his tearings of you in your estate nay in all your fears and doubts return unto the Lord and his Covenant of Grace and Mercy look back to your Seal of it your Baptism and lay hold on it by Faith even but now renew your Faith in the Promises therof renew also your Repentance for breach of Covenant and Promise on your part you shall find the effect of that you never saw and feel actual comfort even present benefit thereof Once more Have now recourse and go with all speed to your first Infant-baptism and remember and believe that God hath therein sealed up unto you his love and favour to you in Christ and that his everlasting Covenant of Grace and Peace and Reconciliation to be your God in Christ for ever and will never fail you seeking and having recourse to him his Covenant and Seal This will fill you full of heavenly comfort in the midst of sorrow and upon Repentance give you good assurance of the pardon of all your sins whatsoever even of this none of your least sins your causless Revolt and Separation from the Church Ministery and Baptism appointed and approved of God A Communion with which if you will truly re-enter into and seriously return unto pleading as you may even yet your Right and Interest in the Covenant of Grace sealed unto you in your first Infant-baptism once for ever you doing the Condition thereof God also will then remember his Covenant entred into with you then once for ever and will have compassion on you and run out and meet you fall on your neck and kiss you Luke 15.20 21. so that you shall not onely have a clear and full Remission of this and all other your sins washed away in the blood of Christ the substance of the Covenant but also enjoy the sweet and comfortable fruits and benefits of that your Baptism the Seal of such Covenant even an assurance of God his being â—our God and the God of your seed and that for ever and of your being one of his people and a member of Christ Jesus and that also for ever So that you may say as the Spouse of Christ for so the â—oul is contracted unto Christ by the Covenant and it is espoused or the espousals are solemnized and ratified in Baptism I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Cant. 6.3 And now Sir am I become your enemy because I have told you and others the Truth and shewed unto you the good even the good old Way If so then the God of Truth who set me a work be my friend as Abrahams and deliver me out of your hands and the hands of all mine enemies and if God and the Truth be on my side I care not much who be against me nor do I fear what man and error on the contrary side can do Magis amica veritas maximè amicus Christus qui est ipsa veritas vita But Sir by that time you have sadly thought upon and considered what I have said fully digested ruminated that over which I have written you and they but you especially I aim at will see me a real cordial soul-friend of yours as who have endeavored to come unto you as a Pillar of fire rather then a cloud not to darken you with obscure discourses but to enlighten you with clear evidences so to lead you out of your by-wayes of Errors into the plain Path of Truth and rather to Convert you then confound you I say your soul-friend for seeing once your soul also belonged to my Curam Animarum and you were formerly one of the sheep of my Pastor-fold one of the souls that were numbred into my Pastoral charge you see I count you so still though you have broke loose and separated your self from my flock and feed yet I have not let you so go nor have I released to you though you have remised to me nor have I discharged you though you have dismissed me yea you may see me your soul-friend yet farther in that I have not run away or lien hid in a corner as the Hireling but as a loving Pastor have followed after the Wolf and the Fox running away with you like as also David did go after the Lion and the Bear taking a Lamb out of his fold yea and when the Wolf also turned head against me and came upon me as the Lion did arise and ramp upon David I caught him
Reason If Baptism be a means and Remedy to free Christian-Infants from originall sin as to guilt and punishment and the dominion thereof in them that are Eâ—ect and Beleevers Then such are and ought to be baptised The Church or Minister of it knowing nothing of this and that particular Infant but he or she may be such This Warant is reasoned out of Gods Word or this Reason is Warranted out of Gods Word Romans 6.3.4 5 6. verses We as many of us as were baptised into Christ were baptised into his death therefore we are buried with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead so we should walk in newnesse of life c. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin I must here add a little explication lest there may be a misconstruction construction of some Popery The Popery in this poynt is this That baptism taketh away original sin that it ceaseth after baptism to be a sin properly and is nothing but a defect or weaknesse which maketh the heart fit and ready to conceive sin like Tinder which is not Fire but is apt to conceive Fire This I abandon as Popery and an Error But this I aver as Truth and Protestancy 1. That after baptism in the Elect Infants original sin is taken away as to the punishment of it for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 2. As to the guiltinesse of the person there being nothing to bind them to punishment if no such condemnation 3. As to the dominion of it it shall not reign in their mortal bodies nor they serve it 4. As to the Imputation of it it shall not be imputed to them but be pardoned and in that respect be as if not But for all this original sin or concupisence remaines in the Elect Infants even after baptism and ever after and is still sin and properly sin some limbs and portions of the old man and the body of sin remain even where he is said to be crucified and destroyed in the manner above and there are and will be defilements in them that are washed I must enlarge no farether here However this may be a comfort to Beleevers that in Christ the promised seed who should and did break the Serpents head which in some good sense I may call original sin there is pardon of this sin to their natural seed and therefore Christ was also born not in the ordinary way as others of Mankind but of a Virgin as conceived by the Holy Ghost that so being free himself from original all sin He might procure the pardon of the same and be a plea against it Yea though Infants in present have no actual sins yet their baptism extends its vertue to the taking away also of the guilt punishment dominion and imputation of sins to come so the party baptised stand to the order terms of Baptism which is to turn to God beleeve actually in Christ and continually renew repentance as the place above mentioned imports Romans 6.4 and thus baptism saveth 1 Peter 3.21 So doth baptism seal the Pardon as of original so also of actual sin Acts 22.16 Ananias said to Paul Arise and be baptised and wash away thy sins calling upon the name of the Lord. Oh but we commit sins dayly after baptism that after justification will the Lord continue to pardon such sins yes if we continue to repent of and purge away sich sins So 1 John 1.7 8. If we confesse our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us how faithful and just to forgive sin it implyeth that he hath somewhere bound himself by promise to do it and where and when but in baptism and to whom but the party baptised so far as sin is repented of when the Conscience makes any question whether God will continue to pardon sin the washing of Baptism doth seal the assurance thereof the person baptised may say I am assured of it I have it sealed to me so many years ago at the time of my Baptism It is also a popish device who tell you that Baptism onely serveth for Remission of sins done before and therefore for sins does after they must have a Sacrament of Penance distinct from Baptism appointed for a remedy For the Sacramental force of Baptism doth extend it self to the whole life that is to be a Seal unto them of Remission of sin in the blood of Christ And the confession of sin is but a more effectual application of the force of Baptism like as the people who were baptised of John confessed also their sins And therefore there needs no Sacrament of Repentance or Penance to be set up for this purpose after Baptism to be a second Table for Refuge after sins actually committed like as they say making Baptism but the first Table for Refuge after original sin contracted For Baptism it self is the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins Mark 1.4 Christs baptism being not different from Johns Baptism as is shewed as which teacheth and ingageth us to dye unto sin and rise unto newnesse of lie Romans 6.4 Which is nothing but Repentance which is called Repentance from dead workes and so a rising from them Heb. 6.1 It would therefore much promote the good cause of Infant-Baptism if the Doctrin of original sin especially also actual were pressed and urged upon People and Parents especially a little more and they heard oftener how all Men and Women and Children born in the ordinary way sin Adams fall are born in the guilt of original sin and have a sinfull and polluted being whosoever have any being and may and must every one confesse with David I was born in sin and in iniquity hath my Mother conceived me it is plain that he confesseth not his Parents but his own sin this being the scope of the whole Psalm so with Job Who can bring that which is clean not of that which is unclean that which is born of the flesh is felesh flesh and blood cannot inherit eternal life and that by Nature we are the Children of wrath and all Infants as that in Ezekiel 16. polluted in their bloods their Fathers are Adamites their Mothers are Hevites c. This if preached and pressed would shew to Parents what great need there is of a New-Birth for their Children and so would lead and drive them to procure for them the outward washing in Baptism as a Seal of the inward washing away of that natural pollution of sin by the Spirit Thus our Saviour Christ inforces it unto Nicodemus John 3.5 and that not so immediately in reference to actual sin as original or Birth sin the natural pollution in which Infants are born and I can see no good reason to the contrary but that the outward Elementary Baptism of Water is here intended as
and constant custom of the Primitive and the succeeding Churches throughout the several ages to Baptize the Children of believing Parents in their Infancy then it ought to be so still continued accustomed and practised This Warrant may be Reasoned out of the word or the Reason warranted out of Matth. 19.4.9 where Christ in case of a point of difference about divorce himself argueth and reasoneth from the Ancient times and the beginning of the Church of God So out of 1 Cor. 11.16 if any man seem to be Contentious we have no such Custom neither the Churches of God Where you and I may see the case there and here to be much alike The Corinthians had got up a fashion of their mens praying covered in their long Hair and their women praying uncovered in their shorn Hair you likewise have taken up a practice of baptizing onely believers when grown persons they make profession and have shut out Infants from their right to the Seal of Baptism being Covenanters with their Parents Saint Paul refuteth that their fashion by divers arguments drawn from the headship of man over the woman from the dishonouring of the head from the shamesulness and the uncomeliness of it from the Presence of the Angels from the light of nature five good and sound arguments and when he perceived for all those that they were contentious and quarrelsome with him about and for their fashion He clappeth upon them as his last argument this taken from the Churches of God that have been before us In like manner I have refelled your Practice by sundry Warrants and Reasons raysed out of the word from such Infants some of them having the spirit and faith in some degrees from their being in the same Holy Covenant of Grace with their Parents from the proportion and succession of Baptism unto Circumcision from Baptisme's being a remedy against Original sin especially from Infants capableness of the ends effects and benefits of Baptism five good and warrantable reasons out of the word and supposing for all this you will not be conquered though overcome but will still strive and contend contrary to 2 Tim. 2.24 Now I urge upon you in the last place this Reason which is the Custom of the Church both Modern we have such a Custom of Baptizing Infants of Believing Patents and we have no Custom approved or General of Baptizing onely Grown Believers As also Ancient Neither the Churches of God have had any such For so though Saint Paul argue N gatively onely the Reason is of as much force and weight affirmatively and the Custom of the Ancient and Modern Church's is good and pleadable both against the New Lights of late scismatical Innovators as also for the old Light of former and present Orthodex Professours As for the Negative the Not or No Custom Primitive and practice Apostolieal of Baptizing again at their growth upon Confession of Faith such as had been Baptized before in their Infancy I do reserve it for at other Place your Dipping Pond of which I shall speak at last onely here I shall bring in the Affirmative That the Ancient Prinritive Churchès succeeding the Apostles what the Apostles themselve did do and practied shall hereafter soon follow did hold and practice the Baptizing of Infants And though I think it will but disturb your Brain and cause you to stop your Nostrils and Mouth who small no sweet Savour or Odour of Antiquity as being one of the New Sent or unsent rather yet notwichstanding I shall and relate the Dictates of some of the Ancient Apostles succeeding Pastors and Fathers of the Church of old and I will do it for others sake who are Lovers of Antiquity but I will do it in English for your sake whom I am Instructing who are no lover of Languages more than you can speak I know you will not take this General Custom and Practice of the Church upon my bare word and present Assertion nor do I desire you should Therefore Remember the dayes of old consider the years of many Generations ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee ask now of the dayes that are past which were before wheâ—â—er there hath been any such thing as the Baptizing of Infants of Believers You shall readily find the same attested by the Reverend Fathers of the Church the Bishops and Doctors of the dayes of old and years of former Generations to have been so to be the Custom and Practice In a matter of Fact or Practice one Good and Creditable witness is sufficient and that I am sure I have Saint Augustine I mean not onely for the General Practice of Infant Baptism in his dayes and those present tim 's wherein he lived as might easily be shewed our of his Books of Original Sin Chap. 40. Third Book of the Merit of Sin and Remission Chap. 9. Third Book against Julian fourth Book of Baprism against the Donatists c. But also for the former and praeceding Churches up to the Primitive dayes For so Augustine who lived in the year after the Nativity of Christ 39â— and was Presbyter first and after Bishop of Hippo saith thus in his third Epistle to Volusian The Custom of the Mother Church in Baptizing little ones is in no wise to be despised not to be thought needless and were not to be believed but that it was as Apostolicall Tradition This is a very full and clear evidence of an Ecclesiastical Custom an Apostolical Tradition whether written or unwritten that infringeth it not according to that of the Apostle 2 Thest 2.15 hold the Traditons which ye have been taught whether by word or Epistle not to be despised but believed Nor did Augustine utter this suddenly but advisedly and therefore upon second thoughts saith it over again and the more Resolutely in his 15. Sermon of the words of the Apostle Let no man saith he buz or whisper into our eares any Doctrine to the Contrary This Practice of Baptizing Ghildren The Church alwayes had this it hath this it alwayes held this it hath received from the Faith or fidelity of our Ancestors and this it keeps Constantly to the end Therefore doth the same Father so often and so much press this Argument The Churches Practice of Baptizing-Infants upon Pelagius and his followers who were Contemporary with Augustine holding Infants were not taken or tainted with original Corruption and Sin by propagation but only contracted the same by Imitation as in his 150 Epistle unto Sixtus in his second Book of Marriage and Concup 18. Chap. in his first Book against Crescon the Grammarian cap 30. in his fourth Book against the Donat. c. 23. in his sixth Book against Julian one of Pelagius his Schollars or his opinions Now if this had not been truly and undeniably The Custom and Practice of the Church even up to the first and Primitive times as Augustine affitmed Pelagius and his Disciples would soon have fallen foul upon
him as the Pharisees did upon our Saviour and have said thou bearest witness of thy self for thy self thy witness is not true they would have given a check or denyal to such a Custom accused it of Novelty or but of Yesterday and so have turned off easily that Argument which of all other lay most heavily upon them the Ancient Churches Custom and Practice in Baptizing Infants But they never did that as who could not deny this And so that other exception against Augustine as if he should utter and urge this in Heat and Passion against Pelagius his Adversary in point of Baptizing of Infants and speak more of the Custom and Practice of the Church than was true falleth of it self For they differed not in that point of Infant-Baptism no nor in the matter of the Custom of the Church herein For so Augustine affirmeth both in his first Book of the Merit and Remission of Sin The Peloagians themselves do grant that little Children are to be Baptized as who cannot come in or stand up against the Authority of the Vniversal Church delivered without doubt or Traditioned by our Lord and his Apostles And again in the eleventh Book against Caelestius and Pelagius He affirms and cites that Caelestius in a Book of his written at Rome acknowledged that Infants in a Book of his wirtten at of sin according to the Rule of the universul Church and according to the sense and meaning of the Gospel and Therefore Pelagius not daring to deny though otherwise impudent enough the General Practice of the Ancient Church in Baptizing Infants as who then and that way might have slipt his neck out of the Collaror Yoke Augustine held him to was feign to shist off that Fathers Argument as well as he could but very poorly and pittifully That the Church Baptized indeed Infants but not for the washing away of original fin which he denyed in Infants but for the better bringing them to the Kingdome of Heaven which Christ said was of such as theirs And truly this makes a great Addition to the Truth of this The Custom and Practice of the Universal Ancient Church in Baptizing lnsants that Pelagius so great a Schollar and Travellour who had seen the Customas and Practices the manners and fasthions of the Affricane and Asiatiqne yea and Europaean Churches being also himself a Brittish born should not as indeed he could not make any denyal or take any exception thereto as who by his own eyes and experience saw found it to be most true and uniform and so I may say our Baptism of Infants is a true Baptism and the Ancient Churches Practice hereof is a true Practice even our enemies themselves being Judges as Deut. 32.31 〈◊〉 why then was not Augustine himself Baptized in his In … y who was such as strong Advocate for the Baptism of Infants the Reason is plain and makes nothing against our Infant Baptism or the General Practice of the Church for neither his Father nor Mother were Christians or Believers when himself was born and they continued so untill a little before their death Augustine himself was not converted from his Manichean Haeresies and other vices untill the 31. year of his age who two years continuing a Catechumen and in the mean time writing somethings to give proof and testimony of the truth of his conversion or of his conversion to the Truth was Baptized himself and his Son Adeodate together like as Ahraham was circumcised with Ismeal his Son on the self-same day These things may be seen in His Confessions I shall need to adde no more for the shewing Infant-Baptism to have been the Custom and Practice of all the former Ancient Churches Augustines Testimony of the same is to me instead of all and as Goliahs Sword to David there is none like that Give it me 1 Sam 21.9 I have taken it and I give it thee not as a single Testimony of one Father for it but as a Quadruple witness of the Universal Church and its Custom and Practice for the point of Paedobaptism being four times expresly deliveced though by one and the same Father Saint Austin Yet I may for more perspicuity sake follow up this General Testimony by one Father unto its Particulars I mean the Covattestations of other particular Fathers in their several ages You have heard what Augustine hath said and written as for that Century For the year 390. 384. and those years wherein he lived Hierom In his Epistle ad Laetam having told her that the good and the evill of little once are imtured much to their Parents he addeth in the middle of that Epistle unless perhaps you think the Sons of Christians is they receive not Baptism They onely are guilty of sin and that the wickedness also thereof is not to be referred or to redound to the Parents who would not give it especially at or in such a time wherein they could not contradict who were to receive it In his Book against the Pelagians towards the end he is for Infant-Baptism and confirms it by allerdging the Authority of Cyprian and his Colleagues In the same third Book against Pelag it is thus Crito i.e. Pelagian saith grant me thus much at lest that they are without sin who cannot sin speaking of Infants To whom Atticus i.e. Hieronimus Answereth I will Grant it if they have been Baptized in Christ and again They are without any Sin through the Grace of God which they have received in Baptism Chrysostom Arch-Bishop of Constantinople For the year 382. in his Homil. to the Neophytes is for the Baptism of Children and in his 40. Homil upon Genes calls Baptism our Circumcision His being not Baptized untill he was 21. years of age doth not prejudice here as whose Father and Mother were not Christians at his birth and who himself was brought up under Libanius an enemy to and a scoffer at Religion but after he was instructed in the Divinity knowledge by Miletus a Bishop and Baptized of him In his Homil ad Neoph having spoken of the Honours and Benefits of Baptism he saith a little from the beginning For this cause we Baptize the little Infants that they may not be defiled with sin that to them may be added Sanctity Righteousness Adoption Inheritance Fraternity of Christ That they may be all his Members and the Habitation of the Spirit In his 40. Homil upon Genes having spoken of Circumcision appointed to the Children of the Jewes and the pain of the Incision he addeth but our Circumcision or the grace of our Baptism brings the medicine without without such dolour and Innumerable benefits with it It hath indeed no definite time set down for it as that hath but it is lawful to receive both in the first and in the middle and in the last age this not made with hands Circumcision in which there is susteined no great pain but the weight of sins are put off and Remission of them is
found even of all which are done throughout the whole life Ambrose the Bishop of Millain by whom Augustine was Converted and Baptized in his Book of Abraham the Patriark lib. For the year 381. 2. Chap. 11. writing upon those words unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit See saith he Christ excepts none not the Infant not the prevented by some necessity c. Every age is obnoxious to sin therefore every age is fit for the Sacrament So also in his Epistle ad Demetriadem Virginem he mention eth the Baptism of Children Epist 84. lib. 10. speaking in that Epistle against Pride and Boasting of some especially Hearetiques and shewing the evill effects thereof to the defending false opinions extenuating of evil and sin and the evacuating of some good gives these two Instances amongst others Hence the sin of Adam is affirmed to hurt his Posterity by example not by passage or transition into them Hence is that Evacuation of the Baptism of little Children as if they should be said to have Adoption given there but not to be absolved from their guilt and again Though little ones not Baptized may or should be saved yet great is the negligence of those that hindeed their Baptizing In his Book de vocat lib. 2. cap. 8. he mentioneth Baptism of Children three or four times and once thus They speak very ill and unjurly of little Children who say Grace hath there what it may Adopt but the water hath not there what it may wash away speaking of such as deoyed sin in little Children Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Camqania For the year 379. a man famous for Poetry and Eloquence Piety and munificence a good acquaintance of Augustine and Hierom betwixt whom and Him there passed sundry Epistles a great favorite and familiar of Ambrose whose life he wrote as also of Sulpitius Severus to whom he wrote 14. Epistles As the Beginning of the twelfe Epistle to the same Sulpitius Severus hath these two verses whhich for your sake I must be fain to tranflate into English Thence from the Sacred Font the Priest did lead it The Infant white in body heart and habit Epiphanius For the year 376. In his first Book Haer. 8. The Figures were in the Law the Truth in the Gospel Circumcision which served for a time gave place to the Great Circumcision which is Baptism which Circumciseth us from sin and Sealeth us into the Name of God In His Book against the Cerinthians Circumcision had its time untill the Great Circumcision came that is the washing of the New-birth as is manifest to every one Surely he meant that which the Apostle calls so that is Baptism the washing or Laver of Regeneration and by calling Baptism the Great Circumcision he must intend Infant Baptism as Infant-Circumcision and speaks of them as of things manifest and wel-known the Carnal or fleshly Baptism as Circumcision In the end of his work calls Baptism and other mysteries observed in the Church which are brought out of the Gospel and setled by Apostolique Authority Traditions and then in his Time Baptism was ministred to Infants and observed Gregory Nazianzene For the year 375. In his 40. Oration of Holy Baptism largely speaketh of it the brief is in the Question and Answer What say ye of those who are of tender Age and perceive neither dammage or Grace shall we Baptize those Yes surely if any danger be it is better to be Sanctified without sense and feeling then to depart without the Seal and Initiation Circumcision bearing in a manner the figure of Baptism was offered to them who were void of Reason c. calleth also Baptism the Seal or Signet to such as enter into the Race of Life Basil the Great For the year 372. Bishop of Caesarea 1 Tom. Exhortation to Baptism wherein though the Baptism of Infants is not named yet I find these words There is a proper and peculiar time for this and that as for sleep for watching for warring the Time for Baptism is the whole life of man which he proves at large and again without Baptism there is no light to the Soul and then adds the Jew was compelled or forced to Circumcision because every soul which was not Circumcised the eighth day was to be cut off wilt thou defer the Circumcision not made with hands which is performed by Baptism in the putting of the flesh When wilt thou be a Christian Athanasius Q. 91. For the year 325. Of the Sayings and Interpretation of Scripture We dip or put the Infant thrice into the water and thrice bring it out insignification of the death and resurrection of Christ upon the third day I shall also here set down an answer of his Quest 2. to Antiochus because it confirmes what I have writ before of Infants having the Holy Spirit How shall we know that the Infant was truly Baptized and received the Holy Ghost in Holy Baptism when it was a Child but the answer is long and shall not need because I would be short The Question is enough to the purpose and sheweth both that Athanasius held both Infant-Baptism and therein affirmed them to receive the Holy Spirit the very question makes it unquestionable as to him Again in his Treatise of the Sabbath and Circumcision Hee calls Circumcision a type of Baptism Cyprian Bishop of Carthage and a Martyr For the year 247. The higher we go the cleerer the light shines for the Baptism of Infants for now here Cyprian with 66 Colleagues all Bishops do in a Councel at Carthage decree for it and so Certifieth his Friend Fidus in an Epistle to him third Book of Epistles Ep. 8. Yea that whole Epistle written by Cyprian and his 66 Colleagues sitting in Council with him The Title of it is of Infants to be Baptized and the subject of the whole Epistle is to justifie the Baptizing of them and answereth the objections of Fidus. As to the Cause the Baptism of Infants we all have judged that the mercy and Grace of God is not to be denyed to any Child born of man c. and that there is the same equallity of grace for the young Infant as the Elder God is no respecter of personages nor ages Yea he gives divers reasons why Infants and the rather and the sooner because Infants should be Baptized which for brevity sake I leave out here as who am onely upon the shewing having proved the Baptism of Infants before the Custom and Practice of Antiquity herein This Epistle also is owned and avouched both by Hierome Au-Augustine to be the true Epistle of Cyprian by Hierom as above is said and by Augustine Epistle 28. unto Hierome saying Cyprian did not here devise a New decree but kept and observed the true Faith or the faithful Practice and Custom of the Church Yea this Epistle of Cyprian was a very strong ground for them both to stand upon and they very much relyed
more so the Reader cannot know the particular here of them until he take the Bible and look farther so ready I am not to blazen abroad but rather to go backward and cover your nakedness as Cham. But What have I done I thought indeed I had done and replyed to all your Letter But I perceive that it is undone as who have omitted one of your Texts which is in your last line of all John 14.15 and in these words of Christ Jesut If you love me keep my Commandements What a bad-sighted man am I that I should take no sooner notice of these last words of your last Text in your last line words like Apples of Gold with pictures of Silver as spoken in season a Text like a bundle of Mirth worthy to be laid betwixt the breasts A line Sir I speak seriously worth all your Letter besides and had it not been for this last line it had been so far from being any Love-Letter or Message of Jonathans to David that rather it would have been as Davids Letter against Vriah or a Johnathan's Maranatha Letter writing bitter things as Marah and breathing out not onely excommunication but even damnation whose mouth I have stopped notwithstanding If you love me keep my Commandements John 14.15 saith Christ to his Disciples This is a text to purpose which few or none of the former were brcathing love at last the best thing to end a Letter with and to make some recompence for all your hateful horrid hellish and malicious calumniations of your Mother and Brethren in the beginning thereof Above all things and so in the beginning and after things and so in the end Put on love which is the Bond of perfectnesse The Law maketh nothing perfect but love doth for the end and so the perfection and fulfilling of the Commandement is Love out of a pure heart and a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned at leastwise Christ Jesus whom we love as who loved us first is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth if Christ Jesus be the end of the Law and the Commandement and love the end of the Law and Commandement Then the love which is of Christ sure or Christ who is love for God is love must needs be the end of the Law and Commandement and therefore is ye love me keep my Commandements saith Christ John 14.15 a Text worthy to be thrice mentioned and repeated This is the one onely Text that you and I shall not differ in I hope and which you have rightly applyed and both my self and all of us do take to belong unto us to love the Lord Jesus Christ and to keep his Commandements yea I adde if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 And in testimony of our love we walk in obedience of his Commandements but I will say to you asit is Jam. 2.8 9 If ye fulfill the royall Law according to the Scripture That shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well but if ye have respect to persons ye commit sin and are convincedof sin as transgressors For he that said If y love me keep my commandements said also Thou shalt love thy neighbour or Brother and keep that Commandement also of his amongst others and this Commandement have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his brother also 1 John 4.21 If a man say as it proceedeth vers 20. If a man say I love God and Jesus Christ and hateth his brother he is a liar whosoever the man be for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And again Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the law also Rom. 13.10 I confess I could now much refresh my self in this sweet rosie Discourse of this point of our love of Christ and our Brethren after my wearisome travelling through other sharp and thorny Disputes but I resolve this Page now in hand shall be the last and determine both Onely I shall minde you that amongst these your Neighbors and Brethren we the Ministers of Jesus Christ are to be accounted and taken in by your leave Sir for by his leave Sir we are so accepted of to be his Neighbours and Brethren his Neighbours as whom the Lord hath brought nigh unto himselfe to do the service of the Tabernacle and Temple Number 16.9 and also his Brethren For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed tocall them brethren Hebrews 2.11 whether sanctified by Grace from him or by Office under him and if he called and owned the Hearers and Doers of his Word his Brethren sure he owneth for such also the Preachers and Doers of the same Yea see how Christ Jesus not onely owneth them for such but oneth them also as himself if I may so speak saying He that heareth you heareth me he that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me Matthew 10.4 Luke 10.17 And truly I must tell you that when our People were let alone and left to themselves and our Ministers and before they were befooled and bewitched by you separation from us as the Galathians were by creepers in amongst them they did as the same Galathians Paul receive their learned pious and industrious Ministers as Angels of God even as Christ Jesus Galath 4.14 And will do so again I believe or hope by that time they have had a little more trial and experience of your courses and seen the difference betwixt the new light or flashings of your blazing Comets and the old light and lustre of their own fixed Stars But I give over proving against you or reproving seeing you have given over accusing of us and reviling and are fallen upon love in your last line love I say and that of Christ Jesus the most lovely Object for a fair conclusion from those foul Principles of malice in your former lines malice I say and that against the Church of England and her Ministers the least deserving hatred from you because serving you by love shewed if not saving you by faith Preached to you My advice I know will seem strange and irrational to you in the form of my words and expression Forsake your Principles and leave them hold fast your conclusion and keep it but it is good and religious in the matter of sense and my intention which is this Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice Ephes 4.31 this was your Original sin and bad Principles And again Be kindly affectioned one to another in brotherly love love as Brethren be pitifull courteous of one minde having compassion putting on the bowels of mercies Rom. 12.19 1 Peter 3.8 Goloss 3.12 And thus your latter end hath been better than your beginning and your conclusion
return and reversion to the Faith who were before baptized nor the children of Professors though baptized by Hereticks or heretical Ministers if rightly according to the Ordinance but rather condemned it and pronounced it a Heresie to hold it or to practise so a Rebaptization For the Sacrament of the Eucharist there is a Quotiescunque it should be received as oft of the same Person as may be conveniently for that our growth and augmentation in grace ought to be daily and continually whereof the Eucharist is the Sacrament But I never read of above a semel of the Sacrament of Baptism that it should be received above once of the same person because our Spiritual Birth and incision into Christ is but once whereof Baptism is the Sacrament The thing is acted but once and therefore is signified but once I acknowledge indeed that it is no where expresly written that baptism should not be irerated and received the second time so it s no where said there are three Persons of the Deity though the word of persons is no in sacred Writ yet the will of God about the things signified by the Word is revealed and expressed in the same So the Will of God that baptism should not be iterated and once baptized should not be re-baptized or baptized the second time appears partly out of what I have alledged 1. That Circumision was never iterated none ever circumcised twice and Baptism succeeds Circumcision 2. That there is mention made of an Iteration or often Receiving the Lords Supper but not a syllable of Intimation there or elsewhere of the like of Baptism 3. That in the very Place and Scripture where Christ instituted Baptism which yet had been the very proper place for it there is no order at all for re-baptizing or iterating baptism 4. That among all the many examples of persons baptized There is not one recorded to have been re-baptized no not Simon the Sorcerer nor Demas the Revolter not one of the Cormthians nor of the Galathians relapsed but onely were called upon to Return to the Grace of the Covenant sealed in their first Baptism by Repentance and Faith I suppose the grand reason of your re-dipping and re-baptizing in elder age is this for that you hold your first dipping and baptizing to be vain Invalide frustrate which was transacted in your infancy for so one of your Sect told me the other day that when he was a Child he was Christened but he was then also but cozened As I warned him so I wish you to take heed unto your wayes that you offend not in your tongue or thought so as in either of them to reproach the Living God or blaspheme his holy and effectual Baptism by thinking and calling this a Cozenage and him a Mocker Did God cozen the whole Church and People of Israel when he appointed and commanded their children even but of eitht days old to be circumcised how then doth he cozen the Church and people of the Gentils in our Infants baptized seeing baptism is the Circumcision made without hands Col. 2.11 Nay seeing both Circumcision and Baptism are the signs and seals of that one and the same Everlasting Covenant of Grace they neither are nor can be any cozenage or frustrate things to the right Partakers of them until they be frustrated by themselves the Partakers as by Esau was his birth-right and also his circumcision and them God is rather mocked and cozened then a Mocker and Cozener but they are valide and of force to the spiritual good ends and purposes of either and therefore being rightly once imprinted are of vigour and vertue of frait and efficacy during life and so long as the Covenant lasteth which is everlasting as I said and so need not to be repeated and reiterated but are often to be revolved and revived in our mindes memories and meditation and the Tenor of the Covenant daily to be studied and practised and the Conditions thereof on our part to be observed and performed accordingly Rather your self Sir and your two Sisters were cozeded and cheated and never so much in all your lives as when you renounced that your first Christian Infant baptism and received this your second novel youthful Dippism Nor can that be any good reason of your re-dipping or rebaptizing your defect of Faith in the time of your Infancy or sithence days of age your Eccess of sins such as have vacated the gracious Covenant and vitiated a good Conscience For you must consider that the Covenant is sealed in Baptism or Baptism is added to the Covenant on Gods part as well as mans God promising there Grace and Eternal life and man stipulating for Faith and new Obedience Though therefore you might or did fly from the performance of your Promise by Hypocrisie or Apostasie and upon such default on your part lost your right and claim of eternal life God notwithstanding stood and standeth still firm to his Promise on his part as who never breaketh Covenant with any nor ever loseth his right to any party baptized by any default made on his side These things if they be true as they are most true God being not as man that be should change and alter to what purpose was it that you should or did entâ—r anew into a Covenant with God and reiterate the seal thereof Baptism and so be rebaptized and re-dipped which was but will-worship of yours fruitless and a tradit on of men needless no where commanded you of God no where exemplified to you by the men of God the Saints This rather you should have done as that one and onely necessary thing you should have repented of your evil ways and works and so have returned unto God in Covenant already and still with you sealed in your Infant-Baptism though forfeited on your part yet not released on Gods part This you should have earnestly pleaded with God confessing your sins and by Faith firmly embracing it through Christ your Advocate and Mediatour Thus you would have set your former Baptism on work and your self too in performing the conditions thereof and so you should have recovered and received all the fruits and benefits of the Covenant of Grace sealed to you by Baptism in your Infancy This every where in Scripture do the Prophets call upon Covenant-breakers on their part and his revolting and relapsed people to repent and to return to their first Covenant with God sealed in their Circumcision not to any re-circumcision as you may see Jeremy 3.1 12. Hos 2.7 and 6.1 And so the Apostle cals to the Corinthians and the Galathians who were far gone from God yea fain from Grace not to put off their old baptism and to put on a new but to put off the old man and to put on the new to Repent of sin and to return to the Grace of the Covenant to perform the condition of their baptism and to grow up in the fruits of the Spirit minding them
of their first baptism that as many of them as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ Galat. 3.27 1 Cor. 6.11 such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified c. see also Rom. 6.3 c. The Husband who hath kept the marriage contract inviloable and undefiled in his part and is willing to receive into bed and board a fornicating wife requires no new marriage or the solemnities thereof again but her humiliation onely and submission with promise of better carriage after God who keepeth Covenant for ever fast and indissoluble on his part is also ever ready to admit into his Grace and Favor all who have gone a whoring from him onely upon their repentance and sorrow with resolves of reformation for time to come and expects no new solemn Re-baptizings and Re-dippings into the Covenant but I have spoken somewhat of this in the Scribe instructed I shall add to this point but a few words of the good old Fathers of the Church and shall shew by them that this your second baptism or rebaptizing was is none of their good old way Some of them built their judgements against Rebaptization upon those Texts Rom. 6.9 Heb. 9.28 wherein it s said Christ died once for all but once offered for sin Hence Basil de Spirit usancto Cap. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I English it for your sake We know there is but one saving Baptism for that there is but one Death for the world and one Resurrection from the dead of which Baptism is the Figure Damasc lib. 4. Orthod sid Cap. 10. hath almost the same words as to the one Death Augustine also de vera falsa poen Cap. 3. if that be his Book hath the same also Semel Christus crucifixus est una morte suâ nos omnes redemit quod videns Ecclesia intellexit non iterandum esse Baptisma Let the English before serve for this also Yea Damascen calleth the Reiteration of Baptisin rightly collated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if rebaptization were a kind of Recrucifixion of Christ others of them concluded against rebaptization from John 13.10 He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit Thus Augustine lib. 11. de Baptismo contra Donat. cap. 14. Quid sit perniciosius non baptizari an rebaptizari judicare difficile est Invenio de utraque Domini sententiam nam Petro dixit qui lotus est non habet necessitatem iterum lavandi Nicodemo nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aquâ Spiritu non intrabit in regnum coelorum It is hard to judge whether of the two is more pernicious not to be baptized at all or to be again baptized I finde the Lords sayings of both for he said to Peter He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit And to Nicodemus unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven John 3.5 It seems St. Austin could not well tell or would not which of the two are the worst an Abaptist or an Anabaptist Ambrose also lib. de iis qui initiantur myst cap. 6. and Fulgentius de Fide ad Petrum cap. 36. agree to the same interpretation of and argumentation out of that place of John against Rebaptization especially Fulgentius whose words are Ideò Baptisma et si ab Haeretieis fuerit administratum modò in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus sancti fuerit factum venerabiliter agnoscendum ab hoc nullatenus iterandum esse juxta dictum Christi semel lot us non indiget nisi ut pedes lavet I shall english this the rather to you because it confirms a passage of mine before which perhaps seemed strange if not false to you Therfore Baptism although it were administred of Hereticks as long as it was done in the name of the Father Son and holy Spirit is venerably to be acknowledged and even for this not to be repeated or reiterated according to the saying of Christ once washed hath no need save to wash his feet Others of them concluded against Rebaptizing from Ephes 4.5 One Lord one Faith one Baptism Thus Leo Papa cited by Gratian decret de censec dist 4. Canon non licet And so Thom. Aquinas in 4. Sent. Distinct 3. I shall onely cite what the learned Hugo saith Hac authoritate universi utuntur All the Ancients make use of this Text and Authority against second or double Baptism quod enim unum est geminari non potest that which is but one cannot be doubled and iterated whether a man be baptized of a Catholique or of a Heretick as he also addeth but no more of this because there is somewhat of this unity of Baptism in my Instruction or a Scribe I know there be some of our Divines do not allow of these ancient Deductions and Argumentations from those Texts cited by them which I believe they would have made good and firm if they had been questioned in their times and now others might do the same in their behalf But this in present is onely my business to shew their Judgements not to maintain all their Arguments by which they grounded them I say to shew what their judgements about this your Redipping and Rebaptizing namely that they are quite against it and would not own it as any of their good old wayes its evident this was their strong and unanimons judgement and therefore the and very probably confirmed it from the Scripture Dictates mentioned and produced above The third Catechistic I Quoere aebout the maner of this Dipping Quaere 3. What warrant or command or example have you from the sacred Scriptures or the succeeding Primitive Antiquity for your dipping of persons in their clothes and vestments at your baptizing them so your two Sisters stripping themselves in a chamber and putting on other and others clothes that so they might have their own dry against they came to the House again from the Pond went into the Pond in their clothes and there were dipped in their body and clothes as you relate to me and as you or others instructed them All this speaketh novelty and nothing else but a new business unheard in Scripture unseen in Antiquity and the Ancient Churches For do your think that thd Eunuch or Lydia were thus and in this maner baptized of Philip and Paul in the waters clothed and with their garments upon them and that to this purpose they went aside in private to shift themfelves of the suits they had on and to put on others that they might have dry clothes ready against they came out of the water with their wet ones say not so no not in your thought for the Scripture saith no such matter no nor suggesteth any such thing to thought This being then silent here succeeding Antiquity must be heard what they say and you cannot refuse to do so seeing in your
of washing and nourishing spiritually By which may be put back what the aforesaid Hunnius objecteth as that we have no word of institution none for substitution and whatsoever is not of faith is sin all which are blunted by our keeping still to the minde and meaning purpose and intention of Christ as to the end and use of the elements in general though the particular elements themselves cannot be procured And whereas he puts a man so baptized under some perplexity of conscience and under the temptation of Satan for I will instance but in that see you are not baptized with water but with some other liquor which was neither sanctified by any Word of God to this use of washing away sin neither hath it any such promise in Scripture adjoined therto he may be taken out of the same tentation by this answer of a good conscience That water was sought out for and none could be gotten and he was in danger and extremity of life and in distresse and want of Christ and his blood to wash his sins away There being some wine in a vessel in the house a Minister affecting no innovation but his good and salvation and the sacramental application of Christs washing blood for his further confirmation and consignation which he so earnestly desired took wine when he could have no water and poured of it upon him using the words I baptize thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost and so he may hope ye doubt not but God hath accepted of him as rightly baptized and interressed in Christ If it be said what analogy in the Lords Supper is there of water to wine seeing this is made up of many bunches of grapes or in baptism of wine to water seeing this hath a vertue to wash and cleanse I reply such particular analogies though they may be profitably thought of where the proper Elements to each Sacrament may be possibly gotten which are not negligently to be omitted yet are they not so precisely to be urged and strictly pressed the one against the other in the times of the scarcity of each Though if so I can say That the water also is made up of many drops of Rain and the wine hath also a washing and cleansing vertue It is sufficient that there is here a general analogy for the testifying of our mutual Communion and spiritual ablution as here is in that we use the same kind of symbols as drink and meat also and washing which are common and usual amongst us in defect of the proper and special and specially in that we hold one and the same faith in conjunction with and sanctification by one Christ and Saviour If indeed though in a case of exigency and scarcity of water any should substitute or use such a matter as hath no power at all in it self to wash or cleanse off the filth of the body so not to signifie the blood of Christ which cleanseth from the guilt of sin it were to be disallowed as that Baptismus Arenarius spoken of by Nicephorus lib. 3. cap. ult how that a young man of the Hebrews being desperately sick and calling for baptism in want of water was superfused with sand and miraculously recovered immediately whom notwithstanding the Bishop of Ascalonia being consulted with thereabouts sent away unto Jordan to be truly baptized the former baptism being indeed as the house in the Gospel built upon the sand and could not stand I know no History of a sandy Supper of the Lord as I may so speak to parallel with that sandy baptism as it was called unless it be that sucacoena that dry Communion and Supper the Popish Priests do give to their people for they also as to the one material part of this sacrament give them not that which doth and should represent the blood of Christ and satisfie their thirst as who give them no wine nothing at all instead of it and is it not all one to give them nothing and to give them that which doth not nor can signifie the blood and satisfie the thirst I am sure nothing doth neither But why do I thus enlarge I return to you and your Pond water And here again I must tell you it was a new business for the ancient manner of the Church in the purest times was to baptize as out of the Church so in Wels and Rivers Floods and Fountains so Walafridus Strabo saith in the 26 Chapter of Ecclesiastical things For thus Christ and all the other multitudes of people were baptized of John in the river Jordan as is expresly said by the Evangelists two of them Matth. 3.13 and 6. Mark 1.5 9. and where it is said John baptized in water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza noteth that Jordan is meant in that Story wheresoever it s mentioned in the singular number as there Matth. 3.11 And whereas John 3.32 John was also baptizing in Aenon neer to Salim because there was much water there either Jordan overflowed hither also and these were other rivers about Aroer and and by the river Arnon mentioned in the Books of Moses oft and meant here by the many waters like as Acts 8.36 they came to a certain water and the Eunuch said See here is water thereby is meant the river Eleutheras lying without the borders of Aegypt where Philip overtook or found the Eunuch and baptized him saith our learned Beza Yea and that Text Acts 16.13 and 15. that Lydia and her houshold were baptized by a Rivers side of the Apostle St. Paul Now tell me who of old as old the Gospel as the Acts of the Apostles was ever baptized or as you speak dipped in a Pond True in the 5 of John there is mention made of a Pond or Pool Stagnum a standing or pent up water whereinto whosoever after the moving or troubling the water by an Angel descending stepped in first was made whole of whatsoever disease he had but this being a special Pond of water extraordinarily assisted of God and miraculously for medicinal cures of bodily diseases maketh nothing for Ponds generally and ordinarily appointed and mysteriously used for baptismal washing of spiritual sins of the soul Where is now your zeal for Scripture examples and patterns that you so much pretend to make shew of How are you still taken tardy in those defaults as you make them in us of humane inventions is this your conformity to the Word is it not rather your difformity from it and its presidents and so indeed this people have committed two evils you have forsaken the clear Fontains and Rivers and Well-springs and have sought out muddy Ponds Pools and Well-springs and have sought out muddy Ponds Pools and standing waters to dip your proselytes in and so leaving the Scripture examples embrace your own inventions we our selves do not therefore baptize no not in Rivers or Fountains nor do we press the same For such examples are not we know left upon the record of
work of the Lord it merited one of your best clearest and purest water-ponds to do the Lords work in otherwise you make the baptism of the Lord despicable by your chusing a foul muddy horse-cow-hog-pond for dipping as they in Malachy who made the Table of the Lord contemptible by their offering to him the blinde and the lame and the sick for sacrifice Mal. 1.7 8. If you think of no better then pond-water and such water-ponds instead of River-water or Fountain for their dipping in at the first Sacrament your poor proselytes may be afraid that you will set forth the brown-loaf to them instead of white-bread for their feeding at the next Sacrament for this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed in comparison of themselves say the blessed Scribes and Pharisees The fift Chatechistical Quaere is about the Action it self of the Dipping Quaere 5. What warrant have you of precept or example from sacred Scripture or the succeeding primitive Antiquity for your dipping or immerging the bodies over head and ears of these Sisters and others whom you presume to baptize as your proselytes If I would be a critick upon words I could tell you that your word of Dipping falls short and cometh not home to the word of Immerging for all dipping is not immerging though all immerging be dipping That all dipping is not immerging See Mat. 26.23 He that dippeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his hand with me in the dish shall betray me I think you will not say that he immerged his hand and thrust it or put it into and under the sauce there over back and palm up to the wrist besides Dipping may be of a part of the body whereas usually immerging is spoken of the whole body That dipping may be of a part you see by the former Text of the hand yea of a part of the hand so you may see Luke 16.24 That he may dip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue It is true there is something of baptism in them both in Dipping and immerging because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both yet both together if so be you can make them agree together are at odds with baptism and go not even with it in the language of the Scripture or latitude of the Word for some things are said there to be baptized which were neither dipped nor immerged as the children of Israel were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea 1 Cor. 10.2 but neither dipped or immerged in them of which more anon and some things are said to be dipped and immerged which are not baptized This you confess in your Letter and give me a very homely instance that you may dip your dog but not baptize him Yea some School-men as Hallensis and Gabriel deny it to be the Sacrament or Baptism if it be said Ego te mergo I dip or immerge and they give this reason because those words are not Synonimal with the word I Baptize thee baptism not signifying every dipping or immersion but onely that sacred one but in reverence of Antiquity and in respect had to the Ancient Fathers of the Church who in the point of baptism so speak of them as one and the same I yeild tinction or dipping and immersion to be one and the same likewise in this matter for so Tertul. lib. de Coro militis translateth and readeth these words Ite docete omnes nationes Tingentes eas and so likewise do others of the Latine Fathers which sheweth that with them Tingo as also Immergo doth both signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet I shall not yeild it to the exclusion of our sprinkling and aspersion or perfusion but that this also is included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if not also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which letting Lexicons and Grammarians rest I will produce Nicephorus Narrat Lib. Cap. 3. where speaking of Novatus how that after or upon great sickness converted he desired to be baptized Aquam petiit quâ in lecto ipso ita uti decumbebat perfusus baptizatâ—s scilicet est siquidem Tinctionem hujusmodi Baptismum vocari licet where you see that the three words Tinction Perfusion and Baptism are all one and both perfusion and tinction are called Baptism This Nicephorus lived in the year 1330. above 300. years sithence But I have undertaken to be rather a censurer of your work then a Critick of words And yet before I pass from this I must not so much Criticise as Catechize you about the word of baptizing which some of your Learned in the Greek tongue though most of you are professing and professed against both learning and languages do urge for your dipping and immerging Baptism for so they derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to dip and immerge and hence conclude that the dipping and immerging Baptism is the true and onely Baptism as derived from dipping 1. But first How if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth also as it doth also signifie to Wash then doth it not fetch in with it our sprinkling and aspeising Baptism or rather the pouring on or laying on of water with the hand and gently rubbing the face or forehead therewith Yea and the word signifieth also to Dye as well as to dip or wash and intimateth that changing of the Hiew or Colour as I may so call it which is in Baptism and which is alluded to in Isay 1.16 Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doing and then at the 18. v. Though your sins be as scarlet and red as Crimson they shall be as wool and white as snow For whereas in our natural estate we are deep Dyed in sins and transgressions as scarlet and crimson and as the Aethiopian have contracted a black skin upon our souls which we cannot change and are as full of black spots as the Leopard which we cannot put off by any of the powers of nature Jer. 13.23 when we are baptized into Christ we do put on Christ that pure and immaculate Lamb who spreadeth over us the white Fleece of his innocency and righteousness and therewith as with a white garment covereth all our black deformities and so which is strange being dipt in his blood we are dyed white i.e. innocent as in the sight and acceptation of God which was signified of old by putting presently a white garment upon the party baptized of which Ambrose speaketh Lib. de iis qui initiantur myst Cap 7. Accepisti post haec vestimenta candida ut esset indicium quod exueris involucrum peccatorum indueris innocentiae c. sta velamina de quibus dixit propheta Asperges me Domine Hysope mundabor lavabis me super nivem deâ—lbalor And so the same Gregory Turonensis whom I cited before Lib. 5. Hist Cap 11. Renatusque Deo per Baptismi Sacramentum cum Albatis reliquis
Theodoret useth who relateth it that they did it by pouring or sprinkling of water upon their head those Heretiques imitating therein as their manner is in those things there is no difference the Custom of the Orthodox And yet before these Athanasius who lived about 325. Orat. 3. Contra Arianos hath another more express testimony where having shewed that the Arians could not give a true and perfect baptism because they erred in the foundation and essence of it as who though they pronounced the words I baptize thee in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost believed not in the sacred Trinity as who deny the Son he hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that those who are sprinkled and aspersed of them that is baptized are rather polluted and defiled with ungodliness then washed for so I think the word ought rather to be rendred as having reference to baptism according to the sense and purpose of Athanasius in this place then as Petras Nannius doth Redeemed for though the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie also to be redeemed yet he shewed him self a true Translator indeed of the word in General but not so good an Interpreter of the sense nor word here in this particular which also signifieth and here must to be washed for the reason above I have given and so Vossius saith elegantly as pertinently polluere ait non abluere rather polluted then washed as I rendred it but that which comes hence to my purpose that Athanasius calleth and maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sprinkling and aspersion of water in the right form to be baptism and that it is good and true baptism which is given in that way and manner But I can bring forth a testimony far beyond these for the Antiquity of aspersing or perfusion in baptism and that is of Tertullian living about the year 190 lib. de poenit cap. 6. I deny not saith he but that the Divine benefit Ablutio delictorum the washing of sin should be ready and safe to all that come to the water and then he addeth but they must labour also to come thither for otherwise saith he Quis tibi tam infidae paenitentiae viro asperginem unam cujustibet aquae commodabit if thou beest a man untrue to thy repentance thou makest who will let thee have one sprinkling of water in opposition or allusion to the Trine immersion as I suppose and meaning that if he would not come to the waters being in health to be dipt thrice he deserved not to be come unto in sickness to be once aspersed and sprinkled so speaking plain enough for sprinkling and aspersing the sick and weak especially the which also Cornelius a Byshop of Rome in Cyprians time maketh mention of in an Epistle to Fab. Antioch which is in Euseb lib. 6. cap. 43. where he likewise relates of Novatus the Heretique that when he was freed from the evil spirit and fell into a grievous disease upon his bed desired baptism and so was in his bed baptized i. e. perfusus aqua by water poured sprinkled upon him This was so customary amongst the Ancient to sprinkle and asperse the sick in bed if there they came to their first conversion that it was called Baptismus Clinicorum the baptism of the bedrid though they did not so highly esteem of such as were so baptized in bed upon sickness yea they debarred such from being of the Clergy because they thought they become Christians rather of necessity then good will And because I have mentioned such a thing as the Baptism of the Clinicks or such as were converted and baptized in their sickness and death beds I will put you a Quaere upon a supposition which often falleth out knowing you will presently run to your master of quaeres for answer and resolution Suppose one of your children or his or any your other brethren who by vertue or vice rather of your opinion hath been kept and detained from it's baptism during it's infancy and minority should be at 13 or 14 years of age visited of God with sickness and so scholed and enlightned by him therein and thereby for schola crucis est schola lucis that he should come to a good measure of knowledge of himself and God of his sins traduced at his birth and committed in his life of Gods mercies promised in his word and covenanted in Christ and so lying in bed under great distempers even fore-going death should upon and after confession of his sins and profession of his faith in Christ earnestly desire and require baptism as the Seal of Gods Covenanted Mercy and as a confirmation of his faith therein and a strengthening of him against the fears of death before and at his departure out of this world What would you now do here Dare you deny still and withhold baptism from him in this condition when as it may be and ought to be ministred unto him then will you be and are you guilty before God of a plain and palpable contempt of the ordinance of baptism which is and will be damnable to whomsoever Gen. 17.24 Exod. 4.24 25. And if you think it now needful for him to have baptism for that he is now capable of it according to your own tenet and the thing is now feizable and possible to be had I ask how and which way shall baptism be given and conferred unto him Will you remove him out of his bed in his clothes or in his bed and its cloathes to your Pond or cause to be brought to the bed-side some big Vessel or Tub of water which later is more then I need grant unto you in the point betwixt us and so either the one or the other way 〈◊〉 immerge his whole body in the cloathes or out of the cloathes which is still more then I need yeeld Then in all probability may and will you be guilty both before God and man of the death and destruction of the party the which is and will be as damnable to whomsoever Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me You cannot but see and say as David once you are in a great straight 2 Sam. 24.13 14. For according to your opinion and practice you must either let your child depart the world without baptism when it might have it if you would which will be prejudicial to your soul and your salvation or you must give it your dipping baptism which will be prejudicial to its body and its preservation as causing it to depart the world sooner then otherwise it would The onely way to come out of your straights is straightway to fall now into the hands of the Lord God with David and laying down your imaginations and every high thing of yours that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God 2 Cor. 10.5 to call for and suffer some lawful Minister of God to come and after such confession and profession heard by him
have not indeed during your minority any sensible use and benefit thereof because of your incapability but yet the Right and Title is not vain but true and real and stands firmely secured unto you to be claimed and enjoyed to your use good and benefit what time soever you come to be capable of it so that you shall not need to look after a new Will or sealed Conveyance thereof the first being in force and effectual Even so God by Will and Covenant hath made over as it were Christ with all his Merits Righteousness and all Graces accompanying Salvation to you as still supposed an Elect child born of believing Parents in those words I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and sealed the same in Baptism unto you and you have made little or nothing of it for a long while as to your comfort and benefit thereby by reason of your uncapableness of them by your ignorance and want of knowledge faith c. yet your Right and Title to Christ and all his Merits was and is good and real and stood and stands firmely secured unto you and sealed in your Baptism and whensoever you come to understand what grant God hath sealed to you in Baptism and do actually lay hold upon by Faith and resolve to come out of your sins as it seems lately and you say The Grace of God appeared bringing you to the knowledge of the Truth and plucking you from your evil wayes then you may lay claim to them all and shall have the comfortable benefit and finde and feel the effectual fruit of your Baptism so that you needed not have looked out after another new Will or Covenant or another new Seal of the same Covenant the old being still in force and in effect to the slighting of God in his own Ordinance and to the introducing of a new Business and so in a maner setting your posts to Gods post Ezek. 43.8 and setting altar against altar yea Baal before God Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron 2 Kings 1.6 so was it not because there was no Baptism in our Church or your baptizing of our Church was not as you thought in force and efficacy that you ran out to the Anabaptist to be dipt and laver'd in a Pond or to be ponded and plunged at Laver This indeed was occasioned through great ignorance and profaneness in part that you had so mean and base opinion of the outward Sign and Seal of your Infant-baptism and the vertue and efficacy thereof as if it were a meer mysterial Ceremony and sacramental Complement for the present time to give the Childe a Name and there an end and no farther matter or benefit for the future Know then and I pray mark it seriously that you may know it and I may not beat onely the air and your ear but also the heart and the fire in you if you be of Gods Elect that your Infant-baptism was of vertue and effectual to the taking away of the guilt of sin and to the furtherance of your salvation not onely in that hour it was taken and received by you from me in your Infancy but it is and may be and will be if you be not the hinderance thereunto and to your self of force and powerful to the same good ends for the time future and to come yea throughout your whole life time as also in all other such as are elect children of God truly and inwardly baptized or regenerate The which truth as being of grat moment in and against this new business of yours I will prove both by Scripture and Reason and both briefly for I confess I am too tedious and long but it is that I might do you the more good and Baptism the more right St. Mark 16.16 saith He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved is baptized in present for the act and some present benefit but it extendeth its vertue farther to time future for he shall be saved Col. 2.12 They are buried with Christ in baptism and are risen with him They are so now a long time after finding the vertue and effects thereof who were long before baptized as to the act and some initial fruits thereof 1 Pet. 3.21 Even Baptism doth now also save us now in our latter dayes it saveth us though in former times received by us So in reason it must be so for Baptism is and was to you the Sacrament of your insition and ingrafting into Christ sealing up your setting into Christ the which you needed but once and never after to be done again for the force thereof goeth on and continueth for all times as a grafted Crab-stock holdeth on and continueth bearing also fruit if it be not broken off Once engrafting though often nourishing once regenerating and alwayes increasing is the Grace of Christ and the life of a Christian and if it were not so that the force of our once being baptized did continue and reach to the washing off all the sins of our whole time why then you would have upon every sin which is a separation of you from God a new ingrafting and so a new seal of it Baptism or somewhat else Secondly because as long as the Covenant it self is of force and effectual so long is Baptism of force and effectual that being the foundation and substance of this as every promise or covenant is of the seal in which God promiseth and covenanteth to and with the party baptized inwardly to be their God and the God of their seed But this covenant of the Grace of God to you and all his Elect children is eternal and so effectual at all times so Esay 54.10 The mountains shall remove and the hills shall fall down but my mercy shall not depart away from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace fall away saith the Lord who hath compassion on thee And so Jeremy 32.40 I will make saith the Lord an everlastingcovenant with them that I will never turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me So hence may fairly be inferred and concluded That he Covenant of Gods grace with you being eternal the Seal of this Covenant which is Baptism is also eternal for the efficacy thereof not limited to any time much less the time it is in taking and therefore being imprinted upon you in your Infancy according to Gods Covenant with you in your Infancy the God of thy seed it is of force and vertue to you throughout all your life time yea to all eternity Now then Sir did you not very evil to obscure the Grace of God appearing to you and to plunge your self into such an evil way and shew such ignorance of the word as to renounce and lay aside an effectual and powerful Christian Baptism ready and present at all times in the fruits
and effects thereof to comfort and support you upon your faith and repentance and all this for impotent element and beggarly rudiment as the Apostle speaketh Col. 2.22 for I may add your Affirmative of Dip again to their Negatives Touch not taste not which all are to perish with using ordinances after the commandments of men having indeed a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and Humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh or sanctifying either flesh or spirit or which is neither seal of any Covenant by Gods institution neither leaves any benefit behinde it in the present act nor carrieth any good before it to the future life as you will see when the scales fall off from your eyes which now hang upon them In this you did but run along with the Papists if you did not out-run them they teach that Baptism of Infants taketh away all sin that goeth before it as Original sin but for sins commited after as actual ones they must be taken away by their devised Sacrament of Penance or Repentance And your masters have taught and told you that they must be taken away and that after Repentance hath taken them away by their forged Sacrament of Re-dipping and so both of you do though in several wayes destroy the true nature and use of Baptism which is the Laver for all sins past present and to come to be washed in and away as to the guilt and filth of them True that Repentance is also another good way to take off sins committed and to procure the remission of them according to Gods Promise and Covenant but it must not thrust out Baptism to bring in it self to be a Sacrament of Pennance as the Papists would have it nor lay aside your Infant-baptism to carry you out to a Man-dippism as the Anabaptists have served you For that your Infant-baptism being the Seal of the eternal Covenant is ever effectual and of force and upon the repentance of your actual sins at any time whatsoever will doth comfortably assure and seal unto both the pardon and remission of them so that there will need no new Sacrament to be set up by them of penance nor any second dipping to be practised by you as a Sacrament of profession as I may call it Nay more Repentance Faith c. Conversion Sanctification are all but as the fruits and effects of the Covenant of Grace offered and sealed to on Gods part by his Spirit of Grace and also but the parts and conditions of the same Covenant of Grace entered into and sealed to on your part to do and perform by the operation of the same Spirit in the use of the means of Grace so that therefore those and all other such like do continue and demonstrate both to Papists and Anabaptists the efficacy of the first Infant-baptism which runneth along and even liveth in them And Sir as to your self take it from me and be no longer mistaken from those who make but merchandice of your soul as they do of the Word Whatsoever things are true in you to use the words of St. Paul Phil. 4.8 Whatsoever things are honest in you whatsoever things are just in you whatsoever things are pure in you whatsoever things are lovely in you whatsoever things are of good report in you if there be any vertue in you and if there be any Grace of God appearing in you plucking you out from your wicked wayes unto the knowledge of the Truth they sprang all and are derived to you from that first Covenant of Grace with your believing Parents and your self I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and from the initial Seal of that Covenant your Baptism which was imprinted upon you in your Infancy and which still remaineth in the force and efficacy thereof if you will mind it and embrace it and practise it and none of all these Goods or Graces have been wrought in you or communicated to you by the Spirit of God in or by your late dipping as being none of the Signes or Seals of Grace appointed of God Do men gather Grapes of thorns or Figs of thistles Mat. 7.16 you are not nor will be any whit the better thereby as to the salvation of your soul and I perceive you have been somewhat worse thereby as to the health of your Body The which I somewhat wonder at seeing your two Sisters who were dipped at your House said as I am rightly informed in your chamber as they were shifting off their wet clothes and putting on dry The one of them I have been these many years in a Consumption and now by this I finde my self even cured now yea and I indeed Sister replyed the other do find and feel much comfort in this Why Sir how came this about that you went farther and fared worse had it not been better for you to have been dipped in your own Pond at home then to ride out and be dipped in a strange Pond abroad Are not Adgors and Kettring's Ponds of Much-leighes better then all the waters of either of the Lavers 2 Kings 5.12 might you not have washed in those and have been clean sure your own Pond and water would as well have cured you of a Consumption and comforted your heart as it it did your two Sisters But the reason was The vertue and operation of Kettrings waters was not then known when you were to be dipt as now they are and are famous even as the Laver waters whither you went and were dipt onely now there is this difference The Laver Pond and Waters are for the dipping of the Brothers and they do sometimes well and sometimes ill upon it witness your self but Kettring Pond and waters are for the dipping of the Sisters and they do alwayes well upon it and are cured of Consumptions and cheered up with comfort after which may redound to your credit and glory and the reputation of your waters Nay this hath fallen out very happily to your profit and advantage also and may be very helpful to the paying of your Rent more then either the returns of your Crop or the Retail of your Shop if you would know how I shall tell you First make it to be more publickly known abroad in this County and Secondly give notice hereof to Mercurius Politicus to Print it in his weekly Intelligences to be communicated to all other Counties and the whole Common-wealth that at Kettring's House in Much-leighes of Essex there is a Pond wherein upon once dipping two Sisters have been instantly the one cured of a Consumption the other much filledwith Comfort And you will have out of hand all the sorrowful souls and Consumptious bodies in the Nation at leastwise this County come flocking to your House as the blinde and the halt did to the Pool of Bethesda Joh. 5.2 3 4. and then I hope you know how to deal with them and to make your gain of your Pond