sincerely and truly affirm what we affirm without dissembling oaths vows or the like in our ordinary talk And secondly I answer that this asseveration was but a more graduall Yea and vehement than ordinary or a more intensive Yea And thirdly this were upon a weighty point otherwise Christ did not use it and so in him it was no offence he did not sinne neither was any guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 Blasphemy therefore was that of the Pharisees who said that they knew that this man was a sinner Iohn 9.24 Then Jesus answered and said verily verily I say unto thee I am the way the truth and the life John 14.6 and no man comes unto the Father but by me I am the Way without wandring the Truth without errour the Life without death yea I am the Resurrection and the Life if any man beleeve in me though he were dead yet should be live John 11.25 I that am the good Shepheard that lay down my life for my sheepe I say unto thee therefore mark what I say 1. Unto thee blind Pharisee that had too much conceit of the knowledge of the Law or else thou might have had more knowledge of the Gospel 2. A man ignorant of a main necessary Truth namely of the new Birth of regeneration and continuing without this might have dyed and bin damned in Hell-Fire 3. Unto thee halting between two opinions between Moses and the Messias whether thou shouldest imbrace wheras if thou had beleeved Moses thou had beleeved me for he writ of me yet 4. unto ye because though weak yet mindfull to be made stronger therefore I will not despise thee nor loath the tediousnesse of teaching of thee for thus it was prophesied of me Esa 42.3 a bruised reed shal be not breake nor smoaking Flax shall he quench such art thou and I will fulfill the Prophesie 5. Lastly I say unto thee though thou came unto me by night when I should have reposed my self and have taken rest an unseasonable time yet I upbraided thee not nor stood upon it with thee nor reproved thee for incivility but seeing thou was so fearfull and weak thou durst not come by day I 'le receive thee kindly take pains with thee and teach thee by night this for the first part The second followes the change of life specified Except a man be born again this again notes once being born before so that hence it appears that there is a double Birth as in Scripture we reade of a double death the first and the second Death The first is nothing but separation of soul from body the second is a separation both of body and soule from God eternally Revel 2.11 He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death and what this second is you may further see Rev. 21.8 In the Scriptures we also read of a double Resurrection 1. and 2. Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection of such the second death hath no power The first Resurrection I conceive as do many others to be the resurrection from the dead estate of sinne to newnesse of life so that the first Resurrection is the second Birth Ephes 2.1 there is a spirituall Death and from that a spirituall Resurrection And you hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sins and this quickning was in Christ v. 5.1 Pet. 1.23 being born a nâ—w not of mortal Seed for so is our Naturall Birth So is our first Birth but of immortall by the Word of God who liveth and endureth for ever there is our second Birth far more noble than our first Luke 8.11 the Seed is the Word of God In this Birth they have power to be the Sons of God John 1.12 and they are said to be borne of God 1 Io. 5.1 because they are born anew by the working of Gods holy Spirit in them this is the change of life being born thus again except a man be borne againe 1. This being born again is that which few men eye but at being borne Claro de Stemmale of some noble race oâ— bâ—oud that pustes us up as if we were more than men I remember I have somtimes read a passage between an upstart Gentleman and a faccâ—tious Herald the Herald perswaded this Gentleman of the first Head that he was able to derive his Pedigree lineally from Adam This parchment Gentleman was very importunate to have it effected but upon second thoughts the Herald told him he had better remain as he was because the nearer quoth he that we come unto Adam such poor men as I shall be found of kinne to you Truly spoken all mankind rich and poore are made of the same Elements 2. All of them have soules given them of God that are immortall 3. All are born naked there is no King that hath any other Birth 4 All are equally subject to death the Poet truly observed as much when he said aequopede puisat mors pauperum tabernas regumque turres 5. All are equally subject to be turned again into dust and to be dissolved into their first principles and what better dust do the rich make then the poore The Scriptures tells us that God made of one blood all Nations under Heaven Diogenes therefore to quell the pride of A exander whâ— bore himself so much by his discent when he heard that be was to march that way got him into the place wherein his father Philip had bin buried and busied himself in tumbling over dead mens bones with the end of his staffe whom when Alexander saw he must needes know the reason of his imployment I said Diogenes am here seeking the bones of Philip thy Father but they are so like to poor mens that I cannot know them This might give Alexander an hint what his pride would come to after his death Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return belongs to all men alike though in civill respects God makes a difference as by qualification of mind or exaltation to office or by the meritorious managing of some humane affairs c. and herein honour to whom honour belongs Yet alas small advantage will this be to them in any spirituall respect or in matter of salvation for in this sense God is no respecter of persons Acts 10.34 Therefore though they may own the former birth yet let them labour for the second and take more delight in it and bee more thankfull to God for their personall worth than for their lineall the former may be advantagious for the next world but the latter only for this Nam genus proavos quae non fecimus ipsi vix eanostra voco as the Poet That which our kindred and fore-fathers have done in which we have had no hand we can scarcely own for ours So that as Christ said of food I say of bloud labour not for the food that perisheth so labour not for the bloud that perisheth It 's
by the outward sign he represents unto us and what have beene said of this of Faith in elect Infants you have heard and how in time it fructifies Dr. Fately in his Childrens Baptisme in page 59. saith the effects of the Spirit are begun at our Baptism c. p. 60. they have purg'd away the guilt of their sins and Christs righteousnesse is imputed to them Yet onely give me leave to relate what St. August saith of this Ep. 23. ad Bonif. seme perceptam parvulis Christi gratiam non amittit nisi propria impietate si aetatis accessu tam malus evaserit c. this grace of Christ once received the child looseth not except by his own vilenesse when he comes to yeers and then his actuall sins are not removed by his baptismall regeneration sed alia curatione sanentur they must be healed by actuall repentance and yet as Mr. Prinne Obs this will not follow that therefore a converted child of God may fall either totally or finally from actuall grace Our own Church Art 25. printed 1562. they are called effectuall signes of grace Now if God doe not effect grace in some sort by them they are not effectuall In our Forme of Baptisme in the Church of England we have been taught thus to pray That the child may be baptized with water and with the Holy Ghost be received into Christs Church and made a lively member of the same and that comming to baptisme it may receive remission of its sins by spirituall regeneration and give thy Holy Spirit to this Infant that it may be born againe And after Baptisme seeing now that this Child is regenerate c. and I do not quote this as any authority of its selfe any further then made good by Orthodox Divines Ames Tom. 3. lib. 2. cap. 3.75 page though all Infants receive not grace in Baptisme neither say we so Deum tamen quibusdam cum baptizantur habitum vel Principium gratiae in fundere non negamus Davenant in Col. 2.12 Spiritum gratiae inbaptismo acceptum Dr. Featley Part. 2. inward grace ordinarily accompanieth the outward signe Except a man be born again of Water and the Spirit Our Saviour you see begins at Baptisme with Nicodemus and the Spirituall Birth when he would have him a Christian And as in the Scriptures we reade of a twofold Circumcision so there is a twofold Baptisme a twofold Circumsiod Rom. 2. two last For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumsion which is outward in the flesh that is it is not that Circumcision alone that makes a man acceptable to God without the other whereof that was a symbole but he is a Jew which is one within and the Circumcision of the heart in the Spirit not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God So hee is not an acceptable Christian to God that is onely baptized outwardly with Water but he that is one inwardly baptized also with the Spirit therefore our Saviour puts them both together Except a man bee born again of Water and the Spirit 2 Kings 4.31 When the Shunamites Child was dead the Prophet sent Gehezie with his staffe to lay upon the face of the child and to quicken it but no life nor motion did appeare by that then vers 35. the Prophet himselfe comes and hee layes his mouth to the Childs mouth c. and then presently it begins to revive and life was restored unto it Thus we may lay Water alone upon the Body but it can introduce no Spirituall life but when the presence of Gods sanctifying Spirit â—omes together with it then life is infused into the soule And secondly as a man can perceive nothing of the things of this life except he be first born into the world naturally no more can he perceive any thing of the sweetnesse of the life to come except hee bee first borne againe spiritually Thirdly even as the Children of Israel when they came out of Egypt were first to goe through the Red Sea 2. Through the solitary wildernesse 3. To be fed with Manna 4. To passe through Jordan and then 5. and lastly into the Land of Promise even so are we first to passe through the water of Baptisme 2. Through the Wildernesse of Temptation 3. God therein affords the Manna of consolation 4. After both Death and 5. and lastly then that aeternall Canaan or rest of glory Fourthly our Saviour saith not except this man or that man be borne againe but speakes indefinitely except a man be born againe that is as much as except every man be born again that may for the Logitians tells us as you have heard that in materia necessaria propositioni definita est instar vniversalis though in contingenti but particularis In a matter necessary an indefinite proposition is as an universall so that it s not left to every mans judgement as a thing indifferent whether he will be baptized or no but he must if he may if he mean to enter Heaven Fifthly we may observe that this is spoken to a Jew a man that had been circumcised before Amen Amen dico tibi to ye yet to circumsion he addes Baptisme putting an end as it were to the one and beginning the other therefore the Jewes do wrangle in vaine contending for Circumsion to bee for ever and never altered because it s said Gen. 17.7 That God made an everlasting Covenant with Abraham and his Seed and Abraham believed before he was circumcised and afterwards received the signe of Circumsion which is also called a Seale of the Righteousnesse of Faith and to Ahraham it was given as a signe that hee believed the divine promise of the Seed to come Gal. 3.16 He saith not as to the Seeds as speaking of many but to thy Seed as to one which is Christ in whom all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed Circumcision then was an open signe of the confession of this Seed to come now the Seed being come if any man should retain circumsion as still necessary he should as much as signifie he were not come Gal. 5.2 Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing So that to the Jewes objection out of Gen. I answer thus faedus Dei cum populo sempiternum but signumillud particul are non esset aeternum although the Covenant of God with his people was to be aeternall yea their particular signe of circumcision was not to be so for though the covenant held yet the sign of the covenant was alterable for circumcision was not pactum but signum pacti circumcision was not the covenant its selfe but the signe of the covenant It s observeable in sacred Writ quod Deus ter faedus suum cum homine renovavit renewed his covenant three times with man and the sign was every time preximius perfectius the nearer to him and the more perfect First he made a
mistaking that place Mat. 3.11 but that was fulfilled Acts 2.3 when cloven tongues of fire fell upon the Apostles Niceph. lib. 3. hist eap 3.4 tells us of one that was baptized with sand but when it was known to the Church he was further baptized The former was not sufficient because it had not Christs prescription for his was the Element of Water who as it is the most common liquor to wash filthinesse from the body so it most fitly resembles Christs bloud to wash away all manner of filthinesse from the soule Ezek. 16.6 God saw the people of Israel in their blood and in their filthinesse in that corrupt state of nature that every man is born in but verse 9. Out of His meere mercy He washed her with Water and annointed her with Oyl that was the graces of his holy Spirit So here a man must be born again of Water and the Spirit As for the circumstances of Baptisme they are not so much materiall whether the whole body be dipped in water or it be sprinkled upon the Party In the Primitive Times and especially in those hot countries the whole body was put in water as now it s buried under the ground hence Rom. 6.4 they were said to have been buried with Christ in their Baptisme unto his death and the taking of them up again which presented our resurrection concerning which you may reade more at large in the Counsels of Laodicea and Neocesaria But we must know that many of ripe yeeres were then baptized that were able to indure it and for Infants the Country was hotter but now where Infants onely are baptized and such as are in cold Countries diving their whole bodies into the waters were enough to bury them indeed oâ— cause them to dye not onely to baptize them Againe in those times some dipped them thrice into the vvaters some but once of those that dipped them thrice some would signifie Christs three dayes lying in the grave as Tertull and Cypr. others the Trinity in whose name they were baptized those that dipped but once would signifie the unity in Trinity but wee stand not upon these And even as a man can but be once born naturally no more can he but bee once born spirituall which in the Text is called being borne again grosse therefore is the opinion and practice of the Anabaptists who re-baptize their prosylited into their errour St. Cypr. fell about rebaptizing of Heretiques against whom Cornelius did justly oppose himselfe c. In this Baptisme the Papist say that originall sinne is so taken away that after it it s but an occasion of sinne but we say with St. Aug. whom all orthodox Divines in this point have followed tollitur reatu remanet actu though the guilt of it betaken away in elect Infants yet it remaines a sinne as a Serpent remains a Serpent when his sting is gone yet cannot kill and it s kept under and diminished in the faithfull by degrees Epiphanius compares it to a Tree growing in the Walls of some stately building which may bee lopped and kept under but the root vvill never be pulled out untill the Wall be pulled down no more will originall sinne untill the body and soule bee pulled asunder by death Originall sinne remains a sinne in the Elect and regenerate after Baptisme Yet secondly the guilt of that sinne is taken away in elect Infants And ordinarily in baptisme where it is compleat If I had not bin occasioned to the handling of these two points I should not have fallen so fully upon them but the most vvise God hath his providence in every thing I shall point a little at Originall sinne and then come home to the point And in it we vvill first consider the quod sit that it is and secondly the quale sit what it is for the former briefly Ephes 2.3 natura filii irae and vvere by nature the children of vvrath that is by reason of our corrupt nature infected vvith originall sinne and Rom. 7.23 There was a Law in Pauls members rebelling against the Law of his mind c. by vvhich Lavv of his members is meant vitiositas naturae the corruption of his nature which did inhaerere stick in them and as a Law irritated him to what was evill 2. The quale what such it is It s a defect of Originall justice with an aptitude to all manner of evill haereditarily come upon us by vertue of Adams guilt The Schoole Divines make two branches of it and in it consider the materiale and the formale the muteriale they conceive to be concupiscence the formale the defect of originall Justice or privation of it thus Aquinas and his followers who were both many acute and learned though other wise carried â—â—ay with the errours of their times In his pr. sec qu 82. art 3. in corporit calce thus in particular Cajetan Alexander Alensis Durandus this infected the whole man both in all the faculties of the soule or organs of the body as instruments to vent execute that inward corruption and this is the Doctrine of all our Orthodox Divines And Aquinas herein said well in his pr. sec qu 82. art 2. ad jum in peccato originali virtualiter praeexistant omnia peccata actualia sicut in quodam principio In originall sinne all our actuall sins do praeexist as in a certain common root or principle but I would be briefe in every passage And seeing that this is an haereditary disease or inhaerent corruption in our nature not the substantiall nature it selfe first hence Illyricus was much to blame who in his book de essentia justitiae and injustitiae originalis atque etiam in tractatu quodam adjuncto disputationi quam habuit cum Victorino Strigetio vivariae held that originall sinne was a substance a daemone factam made by the Devil which was viva essentialis ejus imago his living and essentiall Image not much unlike that of the Maniches asserted by Augustine Tom 7. lib. 6. contra Julianum cap. 1. Aug. in quod vult Deum haeres 88. who held that it was extranea mali naturanostrae naturae admixta 2. Hence the Pelagians are condemned who denied originall sinne in Infants contrary to Rom. 5.12 3. The Anabaptists Armenians and Albaneuses as Castrensis hath it lib. 12. haeres And now I come to the point that it remains in the regenerate as a sinne even after baptisme Amesius Tom. 4. lib. 2. Bell. enervati cap. 3. affirmes it to be sinne in such properly And in the Argument of that booke in the name of the reformed Churches 2. Mr. Rogers on the Articles of Religion condcluded for the Church of England whose propositions thence deduced were printed by authority Anno 1585. and 87. upon the 9. Art concerning originall sinne Proposition 3. Originall sinne remains in Gods children 3. Perkins in the order of causes page 98. It s the root of all actuall sinne and therefore even after baptisme saith he it
sinne persona infecit naturam in the posterity naturain fecit personam And I answer it was not he comparative in regard of his regenerate part but it was he in the unregenerate part Rom. 7.15 I allow not that which I do v. 19. the evill which I would not that doe I For the whole man is principium quod both of good and bad actions but the principium quo of evill is corruption of good Gods grace Ob. 4. The guilt is inseparable from the sinne I answer its inseparabile quoad dignitatem paenae but its separable quoad ordinationem ad paenam and that will serve to keepe us from ever comming into the fire of Hell Obj. 5. What is properly sinne is taken away by the grace of Christ in baptisme but defect of originall justice not ergo Ans Non ut non sit sed ut non imputetur But I may not swell the bulk this shall briefly suffice for the former point that though the guilt of originall 〈◊〉 be taken away in the Elects yet remains it a sinne even in the regenerate invitis Pontificiis whether the Popish Divines will or no. To the second that their guilt is ordinarily taken away in elect Infants in baptisme for the explaining of which I must praemise the certaine proposition as thus I deny not but God may and doth give his Spirit to elect Infants sometimes before Baptisme for many such may dye before they attaine it 2. He may do it after for Baptisme is as well sigillum gratiae accipiendae when it is once had as acceptae 2. When I say in Baptisme I meane by it as the Fathers do Baptismum completum which includes three things signum significatum and analogiam the sigu is outward the signified inward the analogie mixed of both the resemblance stands us that even as Water washeth the body so doth Christs bloud the soule and this union is made by the Spirit Christ applying the one in and by the thother as by an outward Instrument and if any of these be wanting the baptisme is not compleat but onely there is an outward Sacrament of Baptisme not the grace of the Sacrament Ambros de iis qui initiantur Mysteriis lib. 4. tres sunt in Baptismate Aqua sanguis spiritus si unum borum detrahas non stat baptismatis in Saeramenâ—um that is in the sense you have heard therefore when I speak of baptisme to draw it onely to the Baptisme of Water is an insipid conceipt which no man either of learning or ordinary braines could in probability bee so voide of reason as to affirme being that I had said they were not Instrumenta Physica not no Creature not devoid of common reason and charity would have once offered for their own shame to have fastened upon a man So that I cannot meane onely the act of Baptisme or Institution without operation nor the materiale of the Sacrament or the formale of words 3. And lastly though all the Fathers that I have read speake of Baptisme in definitly yet I meane not of all in generall both Elect and Reprobate for the unregenerate and reprobate never have the guilt removed though they bee baptized but of Elect Infants to which I have said God is not so tyed to meanes as that he may not give it either before or after yet having been pleased to set up a standing Ordinance of Baptisme in the Chureh I say that ordinarily he takes away the guilt of their originall sinne in this or else it must bee an extraordinary thing to have the guilt of it taken away Bulling lib. 6. adversus Anabapt Infautes habeant rem signatam gratiam Dei remissionem peccatorum Now whereas I say the Fathers speak indefinitely we must know that an indefinite proposition in materia contingenti is but instar particularis as Doctus est pius this is contingent therefore not universall but animal est sensibile this is instar universalis because it is in materia necessaria Yet now and then a man may gather by what hath fallen from the Pens of the Ancients that their meaning is of the Elect when they speak of the efficacy of Baptisme Again when it is said in Baptisme it may either point at the tempus baptizandi or the virtutem baptismi the time of baptizing or the vertue power and efficacy of it and howsoever if we consider the outward Sacrament of the Elementary materials and the verball formale as no proxima propria or immediata causa gratiae fidei as not having grace physically in it or absolutam aliquam causalitatem ad dispositionem recipientis or any absolute eausalitie to dispose the receiver of it selfe as Bonavent in lib. 4. sent dist 1. qu 4. yet they do this as morall Instruments per quandam assistentiam divinam quae proprie est fidei acgratiae causa they doe efficere gratiam afford grace or work it So that in this sense we say with Amesius aque baptismum aliquo modo causam instrumentalem regenerationis esse non negamus in some sort we deny not saith he the baptisme of Water to be an instrumental cause of regeneration for it is an Instrument of the proper cause and of the effect of the cause which is the grace of the Spirit of God though you have heard not the proper Proxime and emmediate cause Yet I say by this morall Instrument as Scotus Durandus Henricus Bonavent Alexan. Ales and outward visible sign as the standing Ordinance of God in his Church he gives grace ordinarily to elect Infants or else it should be a prognostick of grace or a sigillum onely Dr. Featly in his Childrens Baptisme justified pag 41. speaking of its neglect saith thereby they deprive them of that ordinary remedy of that originall malady in which they are conceived and borne or cata polu but signum inane aut vacnum or concerning whom I cannot but note what I reade in that learned and worthy instrument of GOD in his Generation Mr. Taylor in his Sermons preached in the University in Cambridge and in the ears of men guifted to judge in point of Divinity and printed as a comment on Titus 1612. page 642. towards the end he thus writes distinguishing Infants into such as are elect and such as belong not the election of grace the latter receive outwardly the element and not inwardly washed The former namely elect Infants receive in the right use of the Sament the inward grace Not that hereby we tye the Majesty of God to any time or means whose Spirit blowes when and where it listeth on some before Baptisme as we have heard who are sanctified from the Wombe on some after but then marke what followes but because the Lord delights to present himselfe gratious in his own Ordinances we may conceive that in the right use of this Sacrament he Ordinarily accompanieth it with his Grace here according to his promise we may expect it and here we may and ought
covenant with Noe of not drowning the world again by Water and his signe for this was his bow in the Clouds Gen. 9.12 13. This is the token of the Covenant which I make between me and you c. I have set my bow in the Clouds and it shall be a signe betweene me and the earth Secondly with Abraham and his Seed and promised Christ Gen. 17.10 And that in his Seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed as you have heard and then he instituted the signe of circumcision 3. And lastly he renews the covenant in Christ to all believers and of this covenant Baptisme was the more perfect than the former Sixthly observe that he joynes two things in the Sacrament together that are valde dissimili greatly dislike Water and the Spirit the former corporall the latter spirituall the former visible and the latter invisible and herein answers to the two essentiall parts of man his body and his soule where of the former is visible the latter invisible the Water visible the Spirit invisible the Water washeth the body the Spirit works upon the soule and minde John 3.8 the manner of our regeneration is compared to the blowing of the winde The winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but thou canst not tell whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is borne of God Now in the winde two things are observeable 1. we feel it blowing but 2. we cannot see the wind that bloweth for though it be a body yet naturall Philosophy teacheth us that it is corpus tam tenue so subtle a body that we cannot see it even so it is here we feel the sweet working of the Spirit but we cannot see that spirit that worketh The Papists that hold the Sacraments Phyficall Instruments as you have heard they say that the body is no lesse sanctified by the Water than the soule by the Spirit and they instance thus quemadmodum aqua viribus ignis intensius calefacta non aliter quam ignis vrit c. Even as Water made very hot by the fire doth no lesse burn then the fireits selfe so the Water in baptisme by the operation of the Spirit of God adjoyned to it doth cleanse the body of him that is baptized as the Spirit its selfe but as some of the sounder Schoole Divines have well considered Water being but Creatura insensibilis an insensible creature it s not capable to be the subject of any inhaerent grace as one body or element is capable of the heating by another 2. You have heard that Spiritus is not alwayes necessario sihi adjunctus the Spirit is not alwayes and of necessity joyned to it 3. And lastly the corporall substance of water cannot immediately touch or work upon the soule But even as the meat is first digested inwardly in the stomack and then by secret passage the spirit and vigour of it is conveyed to the outward parts of the body even so grace first infused into the heart and mind of a man spread it selfe into all the faculties of the soule and then into all the parts of the body so that the whole man is infected So grace when God doth infuse it spreads it selfe as farre thus in this sense in regard of parts where sin hath abounded there grace also may abound And in what sense God may be said to have sanctified us by the water of baptisme you have heard heretofore But you will say what need Christ water in baptisme as any outward signe to sanctifie us by cannot he sanctifie us by his Spirit without this I answer what needed our Saviour clay or spittle or washing in Siloam to have opened the blinde mans eyes could he not have done it onely by a word and it should have served Or why did God create man of the dust of the earth could hee not have created him of nothing I answer yes but he was not pleased so to doe but would use meanes to teach us not to despise the use of meanes but to waite upon God in the use of them when he appoints them Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that disputeth with God shall thou teach him how he shall work his work or by what meanes Gen. 1. the latter part of the second ver it s said That the Spirit of God moved upon the Waters even so doth it upon these waters to sanctifie us by them as by an outward signe giving us by that which we see that which we see not in what sense you have heard before This water in Baptisme is thought to have been typified per aquam expiationis by the sprinkling water mentioned Numb 19.9 But ver 2. this water must have the ashes of a red Cow mingled that which was without blemish to note out that this water must have the red blood of Christ without sinne to goe with it As also by the Waters issuing out of the Sanctuary as some will have it Ezek. 47. from v. 1. forward c. as also by the Waters of the flood Gen. 7.7 and this is plain by St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.21 Seventhly he saith not nisi quis baptizatus fuerit sednisi quis natus fuerit ne quis de solo externo baptismo gloriaretur he saith not except a man be baptized but except a man be borne againe least any man should glory onely of his outward baptisme for outward baptisme with water you have heard will not serve without inward baptisme with the spirit by which the old man is put off and the new man put on or otherwise as many come through the red Sea that afterwards perished in the Wildernesse and never saw the Land of Promise so many may passe though the Water of Baptisme that afterwards perish in aeternall misery and never see the spirituall Canaan no more then they did the temporall Eightly As in naturall generation there is a concurrence of father and mother even so in this spirituall generation the Church as the mother she affords water and God as our Father he gives his Spirit and so a man comes to be born a child of Light 9. And lastly seeing that a man can but be once borne naturally no more can he spiritually as you have heard therefore Donatus of old and the Anabaptists of these latter times have been much to blame to baptize men over again seeing that their former baptisme was by lawfull Ministers and according to Christs prescription both for matter and forme Donatus upon conceipt that the Ministers were faulty in their lives that baptized them as though the efficacy of the Sacrament did depend upon the bounty of the Instrument and not upon GOD. Many that have been baptized by faulty Ministers prove good men and on the contrary many that have beene baptized by good Ministers prove bad men But before I passe this point I cannot but give you one collection from some of the Papists out of this Text. You know they