but the Woman being deccived was in the Transgression Adam was deceived and fell as well as the Woman but the meaning is he was not first or principally deceived Again As for you who stick so close to the Letter when it seemeth to serve your turn Go ye and learn what that meaneth I WILL HAVE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE Math. ix 13. By which it cannot be understood that God did not require Sacrifice for he commanded it upon Pain of Death Yet he says Jer. vii 22. I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them concerning Burnt-Offerings or Sacrifices But this thing Commanded I them saying Obey my Voice c. according as it is written 1 Sam. xv 22. To obey is better than Sacrifice By all which cannot be meant that God did not Command the Jews concerning Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices for we know how particularly they were commanded but that the outward Sacrifice was not the chief and principal part of the Command which respected chiefly the inward Sacrifice and Circumcision of the Heart Which when they neglected and lean'd wholly to the Outward then God detests their Oblations Isa i. 14. Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth I am weary to bear them And he says V. 12. Who hath required this at your Hand It was certainly God who had requir'd all these things at their hands but these outward Performances tho' the Neglect or Abuse of them was punished with Death yet they were not the chief and principal part of the Command being intended chiefly for the sake of the Inward and Spiritual Part From which when they were separated they were like the Body when the Soul is gone a dead and a loathsome CARCASS of Religion And which God is therefore said not to have commanded because he did not Command them without the other As he made not the Body without the Soul yet he made the Body as well as the Soul VIII And as there is Soul and Body in Man so while Man is in the Body there must be a Soul and Body of Religion that is an outward and an inward WORSHIP with our Bodies as well as our Souls And as the Separation of Soul and Body in Man is called Death so is the Separation of the outward and the inward Part of Religion the Death and Destruction of Religion The outward is the Cask and the inward is the Wine The Cask is no Part of the Wine but if you break the Cask you lose the Wine And as certainly whoever destroys the outward Institutions of Religion lose the inward Parts of it too As is sadly experienc'd in the Quakers who having thrown off the outward Baptism and the other Sacrament of Christ's Death have thereby lost the inward thing signify'd which is the PERSONAL Christ as Existing without all other Men and having so Suffer'd Rose Ascended and now and for ever Sitteth in Heaven in his true proper Human Nature WITHOUT all other Men. This the Quakers will not own except some of the New Separation and this they have lost by their Neglect of those outward Sacraments which Christ appointed for this very End among others that is as Remembrances of his Death For it had been morally impossible for Men who had constantly and with due Reverence attended these holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ever to have forgot his Death so lively represented before their Eyes and into which they were baptized or to have turn'd all into a meer Allegory perform'd within every Man's Breast as these Quakers have done But the Enemy has perswaded them to break the Cask and destroy the Body of Religion whereby the Wine is spilt and the Soul of Religion is fled from them And by neglecting the outward Part they have lost the whole Inward and Truth of Religion which is a true Faith in the OUTWARD Christ and in the Satisfaction made for our Sins by his Blood OUTWARDLY shed and in his Intercession in our Nature as our High-Priest at his Father's Right Hand now in Heaven into which Holy of Holies He has carry'd his own Blood of Expiation once offer'd upon the Cross and presents it for ever as the Atonement and full Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World but apply'd only by true Faith and Repentance thereby becomes fully Effectual to the Salvation of every Faithful Penitent This is the only true Christian Faith And from this the Quakers have totally fallen and that chiefly by their Mad throwing off the OUTWARD Guards Preservatives Fences Sacraments and Pledges of Religion And those OUTWARD Means of Grace which Christ has commanded and given us as the only OUTWARD GROUNDS for our Hope of Glory For how can that Man get to Heaven who will not go the way that Christ has appointed who came down from Heaven on purpose to shew and lead us the way thither yet we will be wiser than he find fault with his Institutions as being too much upon the Outward and think that we can and may Spiritualize them finer and make the way shorter than he has done IX But to return if the Quakers cou'd find such Texts concerning Baptism as I have shewn above concerning Sacrifices as if it were said That God did not command Baptism that he hated it and was weary to bear it that he would not have it c. If such Texts cou'd be found How wou'd the Quakers triumph Who wou'd be able to stand before them And yet if such were found they wou'd prove no more against the outward BAPTISM than they did against the outward SACRIFICES i. e. That if any regarded nothing else in Baptism than the outward Washing it wou'd be as hateful to God as the Jewish Sacrifices when they regarded nothing more in them but the Outward And it may be truly said That God did not Command either such Sacrifices or such a Baptism because he commanded not the Outward alone but with respect unto and chiefly for the sake of the Inward And therefore as all these and other the like Expressions in the Old Testament did not at all tend to the Abolition only to the Rectification of the Legal Sacrifices So much less can that single Expression 1 Cor. i. 17. of Paul's saying upon the occasion and in the sense abovemention'd that he was not sent to Baptize but to Preach much less can this infer the Abolition of Baptism being as positively commanded as Sacrifices were under the Law and as certainly practis'd by the Apostles as the Sacrifices were by the Levitical Priests X. Now suppose that I should deny that OUTWARD Sacrifices were ever commanded or that the Jews did ever practise them And shou'd Interpret all that is said of Sacrifices only of the Inward as the Quakers do of Baptism and I shou'd produce the Texts above-quoted to prove that God did not command Sacrifices which are much more positive than that single one which is strain'd against Baptism I say suppose that I shou'd be so
more for it is nothing else which we call Death but the Separation of Soul and Body And as before shewn Sect. VII Num. VIII while there is Soul and Body in Man there must be a Soul and Body of Religion that is an Outward and an Inward Part of Religion And if we destroy the Outward we shall lose the Inward because the Outward was design'd for the Safety and Preservation of the Inward It is true that the Inward is the Chief and Principal Part as of Man so of his Religion But this does not infer that the Outward is not likewise necessary We are commanded Rom. xii 1. to Present our Bodies a living Sacrifice and this is call'd our Reasonable Service For is it not Reasonable that since our Bodies are God's Creatures as well as our Souls He should have the Adoration and Service of our Bodies as well as of our Souls There is no Outward or Publick WORSHIP but by our Bodies we cannot otherwise express the INWARD Devotion and Adoration of our Minds And this is so Natural that whoever has a due Reverence and Awe of the Divine Majesty cannot help to Express it Outwardly by the Adoration of his Body in his Approaches to God even tho' in Private As our Blessed Saviour in His Agony fell prostrate upon His Face to the Earth And whoever deny the Outward Worship to God or perform it slovenly and carelesly it is a full Demonstration that they have no True and Real Devotion or Just Apprehension of the Almighty Therefore the Outward Part of Religion must by no means be let go because the Inward certainly dies when the Outward is gone But the Outward and the Inward WORSHIP of God are not Two Worships but only Two Parts of the same Worship As Soul and Body are not Two Men but Two Parts of the same Man so the Adoration of this One Man Outwardly in his Body and Inwardly in his Soul is not Two Worships but Two Parts of the SAME Worship III. There is but one Faith yet this Faith consists of several Parts There is a Faith in God of which the Heathens do partake There is a Faith in Christ which denominates Men Christians Yet these are not Two Faiths in a Christian but Two Parts of the SAME Faith There is likewise a Faith in the Promises of the Gospel and that what is therein Commanded is from God And there are Degrees of this Faith of which one Christian does partake more than another And yet to Christians there is but One Faith The Belief of a God and of Christ are Two Faiths or Beliefs because many do Believe a God who do not Believe in Christ Yet in a Christian they are not Two Faiths but One Faith because the one that is the Faith in Christ does suppose the other that is the Belief of a God it only Adds to it and Builds upon it And this makes them no more Two Faiths than building an House a Story higher makes it Two Houses IV. There is but One Lord that is Christ yet He consists of an Outward and an Inward Part of Body and Soul Nay more of both the Divine and Human Natures I might urge the different Persons in the One Divine Nature but this will be no Argument to the Quakers who Deny it But they Deny not seemingly at least the Divinity of Christ and therefore as this Lord is but One tho' consisting of several Natures and His Faith and Worship but One tho' consisting of several Parts why may not His Baptism be likewise One tho' consisting of an Outward and an Inward Part V. There was an Outward and an Inward CIRCUMCISION as well as an Outward and Inward BAPTISM yet no Man will say that there were Two Circumcisions under the Law As little Reason is there to say That there are Two Baptisms under the Gospel See what is before said Sect. VII Num. X and XI of the stronger Presumptions to deny the Outward SACRIFICES under the Law than the Outward BAPTISM under the Gospel VI. Let me add that Circumcision was discontinu'd 40 Years in the Wilderness Josh v. 5. yet this was made no Argument against the Reviving and Continuance of it afterwards But Baptism has not been discontinu'd one Year nor at all in the Christian Church since its first Institution by Christ If the Quakers cou'd find such a Discontinuance of Baptism as there was of Circumcision they wou'd make great Advantage of it tho' it cou'd be no more an Argument in the one case than in the other But since they have not even this small Pretence against it the Constant and Vninterrupted Practice of Baptism in all Christian Churches thro' all Ages is an Irrefragable Argument against them and shews them to be Dissonant from the whole Church of CHRIST SECT X. An Objection from Heb. vi 1. I. I Cou'd not have imagin'd that this shou'd have been made an Objection if I had not seen it urg'd as such in a Book Printed in the Year 1696 Intituled John Baptist's Decreasing c. By John Gratton Where he urges mightily this Text as a plain Prohibition to the further Continuance of Baptism He lays great stress upon the Word Leaving Therefore Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection LEAVING saith he pag. 45. Mark LEAVING the Principles c. And Baptism being nam'd in the second Verse he infers That the Apostle here Commands to leave off the Practice of Baptism which he says had been Indulg'd to the first Converts to Christianity with other Jewish Ceremonies As to the supposed Indulging of Baptism on account of its being a Jewish Ceremony it is answer'd before Sect. VI. pag. 19 20 21. But now as to this Inference from Heb. vi 1. John Gratton says P. 47. That this word LEAVING seems to entail the foregoing words in the Chapter before where he the Apostle had been telling them of their Childishness he mentions the Doctrine of Baptism which cannot prove the Imposing of Water-Baptism any more than all the rest and was now for bringing them on to a further State where they might know Perfection And it seems clear to me that there was some need for those things they had so long lain like Children weak and Babes in to be left Therefore leaving these let us go on to Perfection and saith further This will we do if God permit But if they had been commanded by Christ to have been used to the World's End then why shou'd Paul have been so earnest at that Day which was soon after Christ's Ascension to have had them then to leave them These are his words and a great deal more to the same purpose And in the same Page he ranks Baptism with Circumcision Passover and other Jewish Rites II. But it is very wonderful how any Man cou'd shut his Eyes so hard as to oversee not only the whole Scope but the very Words of this Text. Can such a Blindness be other
ceased from his own Works as God did from his Thus Christ as he suffered the sixth Day of the Week the same Day that Man was Created and Fell so on the same Day on which God Rested from his Work of Creation viz. the Seventh Day did Christ Rest in his Grave from his Work of Redemption And there is yet a farther Rest or Sabbath beyond this and that is the Eternal Rest in Heaven Heb. iv 11. Let us Labour therefore to emer into that Rest. Now though several Significations of the Sabbath are already past as the Deliverance out of Egypt the Entrance into Canaan and the Rest of Christ in his Grave Yet there being one behind that is the Sabbath of Heaven therefore do we still keep the Sabbath as a Type of it But there is another Reason for the Continuance of the Sabbath and that is That it was not only ordained as a Type of Things to come but as a Commemoration of what was past viz. Of God's Rest from his Works of Creation And by the Alteration of the Day of the Sabbath it serves likewise to us Christians as a Commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ and his Conquest over the Powers of Death and Hell It was the first Day in which Light was created and Christ who is our True Light of which the Visible Light is but a Shadow and was ordain'd as a Type Arose from the Dead the same Day and gave Light to those who sat in Darkness and the Shadow of Death by the Joyful Tidings of our Redemption from Hell and Eternal Bliss in Heaven Now so long as the Works of our Creation and Redemption are to be kept in Memory so long is the Sabbath to continue as a Commemoration of these Inestimable Benefits And by the same Reason so long as we ought to commemorate the Death and Passion of our Lord so long ought the Sacrament of it to continue which he Instituted in Remembrance of it and commanded it to be continu'd till his Coming again Thus you see that there are Signs under the Gospel not only the two Sacraments of the Church which flowed distinctly out of Christ's Side after his Death upon the Cross but that the Gospel does still retain the Signs of Commemoration which have descended down to us all the way from the Creation And likewise such Signs or Types as have yet a Prospect forward and are not wholly fulfill'd And 3dly The Signs of Present Signification as the outward Acts of Worship To which we are as much nay more strictly obliged under the Gospel than they were under the Law As St. Irenaeus argues advers Haeres l. 4. c. 34. That the manner of Worship as of Sacrifices is chang'd but not the Worship abolished Non Genus oblationis Reprobatum est oblationes enim illic oblationes autem hic Sacrificia in Populo Sacrificia in Ecclesia sed Species Immutata est tantum i. e. The Kind or Nature of the Offering is not Abolished for there were Offerings under the Law and there are Offerings also under the Gospel there were Sacrifices among the People of the Jews There are Sacrifices likewise in the Church but the Species or Manner of them only is changed viz. That some Sacrifices under the Law were Bloody as Praefiguring the Death of Christ and therefore that Sort or Manner of Sacrificing is ceased because Fulfill'd in the Death of Christ But their Vn-bloody Sacrifices and Oblations as of Tythes and other Offerings Remain still among Christians and are Signs as much as they were under the Law The outward Worship of God must be by Actions proper and significant Iron ibid. Nihil enim Otiosum nec sine Signo nec sine Argumento apud Eum. i. e. For there is nothing Empty nor without a Sign nor without Signification in the Worship of God And in the very next words he applies this to Tythes Et propter hoc illi quidem Decimas And for this reason the Jews paid Tythes viz. as a Sign of their Dependence upon God and having Receiv'd All from Him And in Hopes of their Receiving More from Him Sed nos omnia But the Christians instead of a Tenth Part which the Jews gave Give All that they have because says he they have a Better Hope And Ch. 27. shewing how Christ did Heighten the Law as instead of Adultery to forbid Lust instead of Murder to forbid Anger and instead of giving the Tythe commanding to sell All And this says he is not a Dissolving of the Law but Enlarging it So that no Part of the Law is Destroy'd Matth. v. 17 18. and All is not Fulfill'd and since All must be Fulfill'd it follows that what is not yet Fulfill'd must yet Remain And Many of the Signs in the Law not being Fulfill'd in Christ's Death nor ever to be Fulfill'd while we Live upon this Earth consequently do Remain and must so Remain to the End of the World So that the Gospel has Signs as well as the Law and in Great Part the same Signs with other Sacramental Signs added by Christ which are those of which we now Treat Baptism and The Supper of The Lord. VIII And let us Reflect that ever since God made outward Things and gave us this Body as the Soul does act by the Mediation of the Body so has God ordain'd that his Gifts and Graces shall be convey'd to us by Outward Signs and Means Christ us'd outward Signs and Means for his Miraculous Cures to shew that tho' the Vertue did not come from the Means yet that they were of Use and not to be Despised But why do we say that the Vertue does not come from the Means We say so when we cannot tell the Reason and Manner how the Means work their Effect and can we tell it in those which we call Natural Means No surely we know only by Observation and Experience and what often comes to pass we call it Natural as being the common Course of Things not that we know the Reason of it more than of those Occurrences which we call Miraculous and Extraordinary Man doth not live by Bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of God Bread has no Vertue of its own to nourish but only what it receives from God And if he give his Vertue for it is His only to a Stone or any thing else it will nourish And Bread will and does cease to nourish when he withdraws his Blessing from it Therefore the Spittle of Christ and the Clay the Waters of Siloam and Bethesda and the Brazen Serpent has as great Vertue to Cure when they were Appointed by God as Bread has to nourish and the Vertue came as much from Them as it does from the Bread in our Daily Food Now if the Brazen-Serpent which was but a Type of Christ had Vertue to Cure the Body shall we deny that the Bread which Christ blessed for the Remission of Sin
has Vertue to work that Effect He whose single Fiat made the Worlds and whose Influence gives Power to all Things and makes them what they are he said of that Blessed Bread THIS IS MY BODY And his Holy Apostle said of it The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ And do we doubt how it works this Effect Dare we Reject it because it seems strange to us how it shou'd work this Effect who know as little how our Daily Bread does nourish our Bodies Do we object our Ignorance how a Man can be Born of Water and the Spirit who can give as short an Account how we are formed of a drop of Water in the Womb and by what Ligaments such different Natures as Soul and Body are compacted and linked together How can we pretend to have Faith in Christ and yet not believe his Words because of the seeming difficulty to our Understandings who know nothing of the Method and Manner how He can bring them to pass According to our Faith it will be unto us Therefore let us Humble our Souls greatly and imitate the Holy Angels far more Enlightned than we are who vail their Faces before God and presume not to dispute his Commands or pretend to understand all the Methods of his Power and Wisdom unsearchable but desire to look into those Things 1 Pet. i. 12. those Glorious Mysteries of the Gospel which the Quakers despise as below the Measure to which they have attain'd And the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places do submit to learn the Manifold Wisdom of God Ephes iii. 10. from that Church which the Quakers do vilifie and trample under their feet as thinking it uncapable to teach them any thing or to administer to them the Sacraments which Christ has commanded But because the Dispute will arise which that Church is in the miserable Divisions of Christendom and amongst the various sorts of the Pretenders to it I have in the Discourse menin the Advertisement I hope given a plain and sure Rule to guide all Honest and Disinterested Enquirers in that most necessary and fundamental Point The Conclusion Shewing the Necessity of Water-Baptism THE Sum of what has been said concludes in the great Necessity there is of Water-Baptism But before I say more of it I will obviate an Objection which may arise from the word Necessary If it be Absolutely Necessary then none can be saved without it Which sort of Necessity I do not plead for This is plainly distinguished in the Catechism of our Church where this and the other Sacrament of the Lord's Supper are said to be Generally necessary to Salvation Generally that is in the General and Common Methods which are prescribed in the Gospel For no Body will pretend to Limit GOD as if HE cou'd not save by what Means and Methods HE pleases But we are ty'd up to those Rules which HE has prescrib'd to Vs Yet We must not Tie HIM up to those Rules to which HE has Ty'd Vs But who are they that have Reason to expect God's Extraordinary Mercies out of the Common Methods of Salvation and to be made Partakers of the Inward without the Outward Baptism I. Those who being conscientiously concern'd for the Outward yet cannot obtain it through the Want of a Minister of Christ Lawfully Ordain'd to Administer it as in Turkey Africa c. These are under an Invinsible Necessity And their Earnest Desires I doubt not will be accepted by God and the Spiritual Baptism be confer'd upon them without the Outward II. Those who have been Baptized by Persons not lawfully Ordain'd and consequently they have receiv'd no Baptism having receiv'd it from those who had no Commission to Administer it but who were Guilty of the Highest Sacrilege in Usurping such a Sacred Commission not Lawfully Deriv'd to them by a Successive Ordination from the Apostles But yet through a General Corruption of the Times such Baptisms are suffer'd to pass whereby the Persons so Baptized swiming down the Stream do think their Baptism to be valid and therefore seek not for a Re-Baptization from those who are truly Empowred to Administer it I say Where no such Re-Baptization is taught and thereby the People know nothing of it in such Case their Ignorance is in a Manner Invincible and their Sincerity and Devotion in Receiving No Sacraments yet thinking them True Sacraments may be Accepted by God and the Inward Grace confer'd and the Defects in the Outward and Visible Signs may be Pardon'd But neither of these Cases does reach those who neglect the Outward Means upon Pretence of Inward Perfection without them These Despise the Ordinance of Christ and make themselves Wiser than He as if He had appointed Means either Vnnecessary or Ineffectual to the Ends for which they were intended And I desire these to consider the Great Necessity there is for Water-baptism as before Explain'd 1. Because it is ordain'd as the Means whereby the Inward Baptism of the Holy Ghost is given as I have before quoted Acts ii 38. Be BAPTIZED and ye shall Receive the Gift of the HOLY GHOST By This Baptism cou'd not be meant the Baptism with the Holy Ghost because This Baptism is Here proposed as the Means whereby to Receive the Inward Baptism of the Holy Ghost Again Ephes v. 26. That He Christ might Sanctifie and Cleanse it the Church with the Washing of Water by the Word Here the Washing of Water is the Means tho' the Operation and Vertue is from the Word And therefore the Outward Washing or Baptizing which means the same as before told Sect. 1. cannot be the same with the Word in this Text. 2. Christ having appointed this as the Means you see what Stress He lays upon it and how Necessary He makes it John iii. 5. Except a Man be Born of Water and the Spirit he cannot Enter into the Kingdom of God Here the Water and the Spirit are plainly Distinguished and Both made Necessary to Salvation the Outward as well at the Inward As it is written Rom. x. 10. For with the Heart Man Believeth unto Righteousness And with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation The Belief of the Heart is Necessary unto Righteousness i. e. to make Us Righteous before God But the Outward Confession of the Mouth is likewise as Necessary to our Salvation As Christ said Matth. x. 32. Whosoever shall Confess me before Men c. We must Outwardly and before Men Confess to Christ by the Due Performance of His Outward Ordinances without which our Inward Belief in Him will not be sufficient to our Salvation Baptism is an Outward Badge of Christianity by being the Outward Form appointed to admit Men as Members of the Church of Christ and whereby they own themselves to be such before Men But those who will not wear this BADGE as a Confession to Christ before Men Christ will not Confess them before His Father in Heaven Mark xvi 16. He that