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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	baptize_v	holy_a	water_n	5,617	5	6.9294	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68467	A treatise of the sacraments according to the doctrin of the Church of England touching that argument Collected out of the articles of religion, the publique catechism, the liturgie, and the book of homilies. With a sermon preached in the publique lecture, appointed for Saint Pauls Crosse, on the feast of Saint Iohn Baptist, Iune 24. 1638. / By T.B. Pr. Pl.	Bedford, Thomas, d. 1653.	1638 (1638)	STC 1789; ESTC S113179	66,854	266

Baptism as it were by an ante-dated pardon is dangerous no no we may not say so what is past before Baptism is pardoned and mortified viz. originall sin in children actuall in men-grown not sins to come and uncommitted these are not pardoned we speak not of the intention of God to pardon but of actuall Remission not actually remitted till by repentance the soul of man be as it were re-baptised in the blood of Christ Briefly then to the question propounded I would give this Answer that Baptism doth profit us in respect of sinns committed afterwards not becaus they are pre-remitted or that in Baptism there is an ante-dated pardon granted but becaus in Baptism the blood of Christ is communicated to be a remedy at hand ready for application which application must daily be made by the hand of faith if we desire dayly pardon hence we are taught in the fift petition to pray for our daily pardon wherin doubtless we pray for what we want and not for what we have already yet because this remedy is not de Novo given every day but once for all in Baptism therefore we say That the Efficacy of Baptismall Remission doth in some sence extend it self to the sinns of afterward This for Remission REGENERATION is intended in those words of the Church A new birth to Righteousness As sinn is purged away so also the Spirit of grace bestowed in Baptism to be as the habit or rather as the seed whence the future Acts of grace and holiness watered by the word of God and good education may in time spring forth This Spirit is promised to be conveyed by Baptism Act. 2.38 wherupon Saint Paul calleth Baptism the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost This was confirmed visibly in the Baptism of Christ. The holy Ghost descended on him comming up out of the water Matt. 3.16 Nor only then but in the Acts of the Apostles we find the sensible manifestations of the Spirit still mentioned with relation to Baptism which doubtless the providence of God did so order and dispose of that by their sight and sence their faith might be established touching the efficacy of the Sacrament This is that immortall seed wherof Saint Peter speaketh and which Saint Iohn mentioneth as the preservative of the faithfull from the sinn of finall Apostacy the sinn unto death Hereupon our Church remembring that our Saviour joyneth water and the spirit in the work of Regeneration doth in her Liturgy of Baptism pray for the Infants that they may be baptised with water and the holy Ghost that God would please to sanctifie them and wash them with the holy Ghost that they may receiv Remission of sinns by spirituall Regeneration that God would give his holy Spirit to these Infants that they may be born again that not only the old Adam and all carnall affections may dy in them and be buried but also that the new man and all things belonging to the spirit may be raysed up may live and grow in them that so they may have power and strength to prevail against to triumph over the Divell the World and the flesh finally that they which are then baptised in this water may receiv the fulness of his grace hereupon our Church looking upon the gracious promise doth after the act of Administration of Baptism give thanks for this benefit that it hath pleased God to regenerate the Infant with his holy Spirit Thus much for the Benefits of Baptism CHAP. IX The Benefits of the Lords Supper AS by Baptism we are incorporated into and made one with Christ So by the Lords Supper is this Union continued It is the exhortation of our blessed Saviour to his Disciples whom he compareth to branches ingrafted into the Vine saith he Abide in me and I in you using this as a Motive As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can yee except yee abide in me And his prayer for them he concludeth with this That the love wherwith thou O righteous Father hast loved me may be in them and I in them By which places and passages is intimated a mutuall and reciprocall incorporation of Christ in us and of us in Christ. Now if we ask how this is wrought and how discerned heare Saint Iohn hereby saith he we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given unto us and again more fully hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit It is then the spirit which is the immediate worker of this mutuall union betwixt Christ and his Church But further would we know how and by what ordinance the spirit doth work this union The Apostle Paul helpeth us saying by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit Thus plainly manifesting the Sacraments to be the Instruments of the Spirit in working this Union and Communion but of all the rest most full is that text of our blessed Saviour he that ●ateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him that is becometh one with me and I with him This is so much more manifest in this Sacrament if we mark the analogy betwixt the sign and the thing signified bread and wine the food of the body becometh one with the body So is it here Christs body and blood united to us and made one with us by an un-speakable and unseparable conjunction Only here is the difference that bread of Earth is changed into thy body because thou art more excellent than it but this bread which came down from heaven is more excellent and active than thou art and therfore by little and little doth spiritualize and as it were change thee into it By all which it is evident that the primary grace and benefit conferred by the Sacrament is as I said before our incorporation into Christ our union with him The secondary and so the peculiar grace of the Lords Supper is as the Catechism hath well expressed it the strengthning and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ as our bodys are by the bread and wine Bread doth nourish and strengthen the body Psal. 104.15 Hence that phrase the staff of Bread becaus as a staff doth uphold and strengthen the weak and feeble knees so doth bread strengthen the drooping spirits So doth the body of Christ well and worthily received strengthen the soul in grace and holiness Wine cheareth the heart and quickneth the spirits So doth the blood of Christ revive the drooping soul gladdeth the heavy heart causeth spirituall joy and exultation Thus that naturall quality which God hath placed in the Elements to work upon the body doth most excellently manifest that spirituall efficacy which is in the body and blood of Christ to work upon the soul even to produce

a separate Ceremony tho in this use Chamier sheweth that it is not appointed at all but only taken up lately by some private spirits but admit it as a separate Ceremony It is used also in Absolution and Ordination take it as a relative Ceremony i. e. as it is used to apply the Element to the party so it is used in Baptism at least when in case of necessity the water is powred upon the childs forhead Lastly add this that every Sacrament of Christs Institution is common to every Minister of the Gospell this therfore say the same of Ordination being reserved to the Bishop of the Diocesse can be no Sacrament properly so called UNCTION hath a materiall Element grant it also to have been of divine Institution for the text of Saint Iames as Interpreters do agree is a repetition of what was done by the command of Christ himself Mark 6.13 yet can it be no Sacrament because it was temporary not perpetuall And whilst it lasted it was appoynted for the cure of the bodie not of the Soul It signified not the Passion of Christ nor doth it conferr the grace of Justification consequently is no Sacrament Ob. Yes Saint James saith if he have committed sinns they shall be forgiven him Sol. True but he saith before the prayer of Faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up this pertaineth to the body which was the principall end of appointing that Ceremony the benefit of the Soul was adventitiall and consequently tho for the time i.e. so long as the power of miracles lasted in the Church there might be something extraordinary in this Ceremony yet no proper Sacrament not then much lesse now since miracles have ceased To conclude these five Sacraments as the Papish call them were they purged from superstition and abuse might happily at least some of them be tolerated for ecclesiasticall rites and are excellent and profitable customs Thus the Church of England reteineth them all having cast away those adulterate Elements of Chrism and Oyl and findeth the use of them profitable for the furtherance of that religious care that ought to be found in all that professe themselvs Children of the Church and members of Christ. But never may these hope to be acknowledged for the great Sacraments of the Gospell no more Sacraments but two generally necessary to Salvation one for Admission another for Preservation sc. Baptism and the Lords Supper which is further manifested by the end why Sacraments were ordained THE SECOND GENERALL PART CHAP. VI. The end why Sacraments were instituted THis doth our Church expresse in those words of the Definition to be as a meanes by which we receiv the same that is the Grace signified and as a pledge to assure us thereof Note here two Branches of this end why they were ordained 1. A MEAN OF CONVEYANCE and so of receiving the Grace signified Herein differ Sacraments from other signs in that they do not only signifie and represent to the understanding and memory that gracious gift of God but also as Instruments do convey the same Like the Turf and the Twig in Livery and Seiz in like the Sergeants Mace in receiving his office Such are the Sacraments not unfitly compared to Chanells and Conduit pipes which derive the water from the Spring to the Cistern for even so do the Sacraments convey Christ with all his benefits to the worthy receiver 2. A PLEDG OF ASSVRANCE to assure us therof note that word therof must be referred to the verb Receiv not to the noun Grace Sacraments do not only assure us that such a benefit there is but that it is received by receiving the sign and indeed this doth depend upon the former for as by that legall instrument of Livery and Seizin the full possession of the purchase is known to be taken in taking and receiving that Instrument so here whosoever doth as all must and ought acknowledg the Sacrament to be an Instrument of conveying a mean of receiving cannot choos but acknowledg the same Sacrament to be a pledge of assurance Briefly they are first Instruments of conveyance and means of receiving consequently seales and pledges of assurance Prove the first and the later doth follow without constraint Excellently therfore hath reverend Master Perkins in three words set forth the nature of a Sacrament only I would a little invert the order of his words and fit them to the true meaning of our Church thus that Sacraments are signs to represent Instruments to convey and seals to confirm the conveyance of Christ with all his benefits Come we to particulars Baptism doth convey the blood of Christ and the other Sacrament both body and blood Hence and hereupon is the Necessitie of receiving the Sacrament even because the Elements do not transferr the grace as they are consecrated but as received The Turf and Twig the Mace must be received else nothing is done Nor to the Spectator but to the Receiver doth water in Baptism the Bread in the Lords Supper instrumentally convey the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Vse They therefore are deceived who make no more account nor acknowledge any further end of the Sacraments than to be naked signs of representation and Commemoration Or to be badges of our Profession to distinguish the Assemblies of Christians from the Synagogs of Iewes Turks and Pagans to unite the members of the Christian Church into an holy society Truth it is that all these are considerable in the Sacraments they are Signs Badges Cognizances Ligaments externall Ceremonies of Religion and testifications of our piety towards God But all these come short of that speciall and prime end for which they were ordained Distinctive badges they are in respect of the publike Administration which is the act of the Church Uniting badges they cannot bee except first they be instruments for wee are not united to Christ mediante Ecclesia that is in being first united to the Church but rather wee are united to the Church the body of Christ mediante Capite in being first united to Christ the head and by him one to another So then consider the Sacraments in their Administration and so they be Badges and Cognizances but in respect of their ordination and institution and so they are Means and Instruments Q. Whence is it that Sacraments are means of receiving Resp. Even from that Sacramentall union of the sign and the thing signified which being inseparable hence it is that in receiving the sign we receiv the grace also As by virtue of that personall Union of the two natures he that entertained and worshipped the sonn of man did also entertain and worship the sonn of God he that blasphemed and persecuted the sonn of man did the same to the sonn of God So here by reason of this Sacramentall union who so worthily receiveth the sign receiveth the grace who so unworthily handleth the sign doth also dishonour and dedignifie the grace

full nature of a Sacrament which serveth not only to represent but instrumentally to convey Christ and all his benefits So that well may the Church determine that verely and indeed Christ is present and consequently verely and indeed taken yet after an heavenly manner and received of the faithfull in the Sacrament Verily tho not carnally Really tho not corporally but spiritually in in the Sacrament that is in the exercise of that sacred action not otherwise Provided also that we understand this efficacy of the Sacraments to have place in them only qui sibi non ponunt obicem as the School speaketh which do not barr themselvs or to speak more plainly in the phrase of the Church only in the faithfull But of this herafter viz. cap. 11. CHAP. VII The speciall End of either Sacrament THE speciall end of Baptism is to communicate unto us the blood of Christ for washing the soul from the guilt of sinn and consequently our Admission into the Covenant of Grace The speciall end of the Lords Supper to communicate the body and blood of Christ for feeding and nourishing the soul unto eternall life and consequently our Confirmation in grace and holiness Hence we have the ground of that choice of Elements which our blessed Saviour made viz. not meerly the analogy which is betwixt the sign and the signified but also the excellency and exquisitness of that analogy and proportion In Baptism water is used and none other liquor because none other so proper for washing none other doth wash so clean as doth water and therfore none other so fit to signifie the blood of Christ which cleanseth the soul from all sinn In the Lords Supper bread and wine is used to represent the body and blood of Christ and see I pray you the excellent proportion that is betwixt them specially in the effects bread and wine nourish the body nothing better the body and blood of Christ nourish the soul nothing better yea nothing else So also in the manner of their preparation The bread is made a food for the body of many grains of corn bruised and baked the wine of Grapes trodden and pressed So the Body and blood of Christ became our spirituall food by being bruised and broken upon the Crosse Add this bread and wine do no good nay much harm except the stomack be prepared to digest them nor doth this spirituall food profit the soul nay it doth much hurt to the soul except the soul be worthily prepared BAPTISM is the Sacrament of our Admission nor is there any other ceremony or rite of admitting any into the Covenant of grace but only by Baptism The Church of Israel was admitted by Circumcision But since the time of Christ which we call the time of the new Testament all that will be admitted must be baptised hence that of our Saviour to Nicodemus Except a man be born of water and the spirit c. that is except by submitting himself to Baptism he do receiv the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven for which cause when he sent forth his Apostles he gave them charge to joyn Baptism with their teaching Goe teach and baptise Matt. 28. The Persons that have right of admission are as of old Beleevers and their children The Ceremony of Admission is altered but still as the Covenant is the same so the parties are the same beleevers and their children this is plain Act. 2.39 You and your children By beleevers we understand such as are converted to the faith Converts and Proselites these have right of Admission because faith is the condition of the new Covenant Mar. 16.16 and Iohn 3.16 You will happily say to me that if they beleev they are already in the Covenant partakers of it by faith and therfore need no further admission yes they are not compleatly within the Covenant till baptised Faith giveth them title and interest but the Sacrament admission Add this that it is one part of their faith to beleev the necessity of the Sacrament as a means to give them full possession of Christ And this doth cause them to seek for it in the Sacrament Children of Beleevers also have a right of Admission becaus they are part of their Parents and heirs of the promise due to their Fathers The faith of the parent intitleth the child unto the Covenant so much the more unjustly do the Anabaptists deal with beleevers and their children in shutting Infants out from Baptism thus questioning that ancient and long approved custome of the Church in all ages ever since Christ and his Apostles Traditions Apostolicall are authenticall and not to be refused because not written if found to be Apostolicall Apostolicall customs mentioned in the Scripture have a more unquestioned certainty than traditions but not greater authority Neither is this to set up Tradition as do the Papists to the prejudice of the Scripture because we admit none as Apostolicall which either are contrarie to the customes mentioned in the Scripture or which may not be confirmed as reasonable from the Scripture And such is the custome of baptising Infants which thus we confirm against the fore-mentioned Sectaries The infants of Christians are as capable of present Incorporation into Christ and Admission into the Covenant of grace as were the Infants of the Jews and if so which we prov out of Cor. 7.14 who shall barr them whom God hath not barred If not then hath not grace abounded in the new Testament but is rather shortned in comparison of the old as being restrained only to the Parent wheras before Infants also were comprehended and admitted The strength of this argument will appear more fully by taking away the cavills which they make against it Object 1. That text of Cor. 7.14 sheweth indeed that children are holy but how As the wife not otherwise viz. as she is sanctified to the use of her husband so the children to the use of their Parents Thus they but they falsifie the text for the text saith not of the children as it doth of the wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sanctified but they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy which is more emphaticall neither doth the text speaking of the wife say she is sanctified to the husband but in or by the husband Nor is the text to be understood of the legitimation but of the sanctification of the bedd namely of federall sanctification or the holiness of the Covenant for it appeareth that the pretence of them that repudiated their wives was a fear lest the infidelity of the wife should deprive the husband of the covenant of grace which he had imbraced Saint Paul denyeth this and sheweth that rather the faith of the Beleevers should so farr prevail as to draw the other after a sort within the Covenant his reason is because the children of such are holy that is heirs of the Covenant Now I pray you mark well

they are necessary and so commanded Wherfore let it be thy care to take heed of neglecting the use of the Sacraments When God maketh them ready and calleth thee be thou ready Say not Another time I may receiv them if not now Or if not at all yet I may do well without them This is presumption unpardonable And so much for the second generall part THE THIRD GENERALL PART CHAP. XI Of the Qualification required of them that come to the Sacrament WHAT a Sacrament is we have heard and for what end each Sacrament was ordained and so have learned the efficacy of the Sacraments and the benefits therby obtained It remaineth that we proceed to enquire whether this efficacy of the Sacraments depends only and wholly upon the operative force and active virtue included in them or whether this efficacy be only found in them when they work upon a subject fitted and pre-disposed or to speak to the capacity of the vulgar whether there be any thing required of the Receiver to fit him for the benefits of the Sacrament so necessarily as that the want of this preparation doth bar him from the benefit of the Sacrament In the answer to this question there is a direct opposition betwixt the Romish and reformed Churches They hold the efficacy of the Sacrament to be so great that there needeth no preparation and qualification of the Receiver We of the Reformed Churches contrarily mantain that except the Receiver be thus and thus qualified he loseth the benefit of the Sacrament Not as if the Qualification of the Receiver doth concur actively to produce the grace of the Sacrament but becaus in all the works of God wherin he is pleased to make use of the creatures as the instruments of his own right hand he hath allotted to each of them a certain measure of activity beyond which they cannot extend their efficacy consequently there must be a certain previous disposition in the matter wheron they work which if it be wanting their activity proveth ineffectuall Instance in the fire God hath placed in it a certain power of heating and burning yet becaus this power allotted to it is finite therfore it cannot heat the snow nor burn the water Things must be dried before they are apt to kindle so that the former question touching the efficacy of the Sacrament is not much unlike to this whether there be in the fire so great activity as to burn all materialls whatsoever it toucheth or whether the fuell must be first dried and fitted for the fire before it will catch the flame We teach that the fuell must first be dried nor can we conceiv but that there was more than ordinary vigour in that fire which upon the prayer of Elijah fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench so here such an efficacious and working power we acknowledg in the Sacrament as to produce the work of grace in the Receiver who is fitted and prepared but not otherwise Let no man stretch this comparison further than it is expressed we do not say that this activity is in the Element as heat is in the fire we know that a corporall substance is no more capable of inherent grace than a spirituall substance is capable of heat and cold But the efficacie of the Sacrament is from the Spirit which by an Almighty word having united the thing signified to the sign doth by the one convey the other to work upon the soul as hath been shewed Now that something should be required of them that come to the Sacrament by way of qualification is but just and equall God will be sanctified of all them that draw near to him and hereby doth he stir up the slothful soul of man to look about lest by his wretchlesness he do barr himself of that benefit which is to be gained in the Sacrament What that thing is which is required we must find out by taking notice of the age of the Church wherof we speak and of the Sacrament wherof the question is framed for if we speak of the Church in fieri in the first plantation then becaus it consisteth of them that are men grown at least past their infancy there is required of them Repentance and Faith to fit them for Baptism no less than to the Supper of the Lord. But if we speak of the Church in facto in the succession and propagation then becaus it consisteth of infants aswell as men grown if we speak of men-grown who heretofore were baptised there is required of them to fit them for the Lords Supper which is that only which they need Repentance Faith and other graces But if we speak of infants who are only admitted to Baptism and not to the Supper of the Lord the most that is required of them is no more but that they be holy not by any inherent holiness for how should that be discerned but by a federall sanctity that is that they be born of Christian parents I say this is the most that is required of them or rather the most that we look at in them if they have a Christian to their Parent either father or mother this is enough to entitle them to Baptism nor is ther any question at all touching this save only with the Anabaptists Whether the infants of heathens may be lawfully baptised may be a question in as much as father nor mother are within the Covenant Some light for answer to this question may be taken from the law of Circumcision and the practise therof in Israel For infants of eight dayes old whether born in the house or bought with money must be circumcised Proportionably it may seem lawfull for a Christian if he have bought or adopted the infant of an heathen to present him to the Sacrament of Baptism But letting that pass there is no doubt but the infants of Christian Parents may be baptised nor is there any thing more than this passive capacity required of them or respected in them and this I take to be the readier way to deal with the Anabaptist than to shew it possible that infants also may have the spirit of grace and that in charity we may think so of them and consequently admit them to Baptism Which miserable shift did specially arise from the opinion of them who denied the Sacraments to have any instrumentall efficiency in the conveying of grace allowing them only to be seals to confirm not instruments to convey wherupon when the Anabaptist objected the defect of grace in infants to bar them from the Sacrament in as much as to set a seal to a blanck is to no purpose they of whom we speak defended their practice by the judgment of charity In which respect I may prais their zeal but I do suppose this to be the readier way to deal with the Anabaptist to say that children are