he fulfilled the Law making it up in full measures of the Spirit By these steps Baptism passed on to a divine Evangelical institution which we finde to be consigned by three Evangelists Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It was one of the last Commandements the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his kingdome For he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but Unlesse a man be born of Water and the holy Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises The uncircumcised child whose flesh is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant The Manichees Seleucus Hermias and their followers people of a dayes abode and small Interest but of malicious doctrine taught Baptism not to be necessary not to be used upon this ground because they supposed that it was proper to Iohn to baptize with water and reserved for Christ as his peculiar to baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise He sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire the Spirit appearing like a flame but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water and they did so and their successors after them every where and for ever not expounding but obeying the praeceptive words of their Lord which were almost the last that he spake upon earth And I cannot think it necessary to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments For the words are so plain that they need no exposition and yet if they had been obscure the universal practise of the Apostles and the Church for ever is a sufficient declaration of the Commandement No Tradition is more universal no not of Scripture it self no words are plainer no not the Ten Commandements and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any zealous or lesse discerning person it will need no other refutation but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself sees Scripture to be the Word of God and the Commandements to be the declaration of his Will But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacramnet for this will highly conclude That the Precept was for ever which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings and the susception of it necessary because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the graces of the Sacrament 1. The first fruit is That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ presented unto him consigned with his Sacrament enter into his Militia give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ and in all senses that we can become his Disciples witnessing a good confession and undertaking a holy life and therefore in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are conjoyn'd in the significations as they are in the mystery it is a giving up our names to Christ and it is part of the foundation of the first Principles of the Religion as appears in S. Pauls Catechism it is so the first thing that it is for babes and Neophytes in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity Ecclesiae janua Porta gratiae primus introitus sanctorum ad aeternam Dei Ecclesiae consuetudinem The gates of the Church the door of Grace the first entrance of the Saints to an eternall conversation with God and the Church Sacramentum initiationis intrantium Christianismum investituram S Bernard calls it The Sacrament of initiation and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion and the person so entring is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one of the Religion or a Proselyte and Convert and one added to the number of the Church in imitation of that of S. Luke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God added to the Church those that should be saved just as the Church does to this day and for ever baptizing Infants and Catechumens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are added to the Church that they may be added to the Lord and the number of the inhabitants of Heaven 2. The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Covenant which is an immediate consequent of the first presentation this being the first act of man that the first act of God And this is called by S. Paul a being baptized in one spirit into one body that is we are made capable of the Communion of Saints the blessings of the faithful the priviledges of the Church by this we are as S. Luke calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ordained or disposed put into the order of eternal life being made members of the mystical body under Christ our Head 3. And therefore Baptism is a new birth by which we enter into the new world the new creation the blessings and spiritualties of the Kingdome and this is the expression which our Saviour himselfe used to Nicodemus Unlesse a man be born of Water and the Spirit and it is by S. Paul called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the laver of Regeneration for now we begin to be reckoned in a new Census or account God is become our Father Christ our elder Brother the Spirit the earnest of our inheritance the Church our Mother our food is the body and blood of our Lord Faith is our learning Religion our imployment and our whole life is spiritual and Heaven the object of our Hopes and the mighty price of our high Calling And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us the Spirit of Grace which besides our soul and body is a principle of action of one nature and shall with them enter into the portion of our inherirance And therefore the Primitive Christians who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord usually writing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Iesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour they made an abbreviature by writing onely the Capitals thus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which the Heathens in mockery and derision made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies a Fish and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach but the Christians owned the name and turned it into a pious Metaphor and were content that they
their spirituall life It is a grace which by vertue of the Covenant consign'd in Baptism does like a Centre transmit effluxes to all the periods and portion of our life our whole life all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this This consideration is of great use besides many other things to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferr'd their Baptism till their death-bed Because Baptism is a laver of sanctification and drowns all our sins and buries them in the grave of our Lord they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism for unlesse they were strangely prevented by a sudden accident a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition but early some of them durst not take it much lesse in the beginning of their years that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth Baptisme hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the dayes of our folly and infirmity and so long as we have not been baptized so long we are out of the state of pardon and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins if we have taken it in the beginning of our dayes 5. The next benefit of Baptism which is also a verification of this is a sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit spiritus amnem Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas Concipit unda Deum sanctámque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem The holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism and makes them prolificall apt to produce children unto God and therefore Saint Leo compares the Font of Baptism to the Womb of the blessed Virgin when it was replenished with the holy Spirit And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord his ministers baptize with water our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery with giving the holy Spirit They are joyned together by S. Paul We are by one Spirit baptized into one body that is admitted into the Church by Baptism of Water and the Spirit This is that which our blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit by Water we are sacramentally dead and buried by the Spirit we are made alive But because these are mysterious expressions and according to the style of Scriture high and secret in spiritual significations therefore that we may understand what these things signifie we must consider it by its real effects and what it produces upon the Soule of a man 1. It is the suppletory of originall Righteousnesse by which Adam was at first gracious with God and which he lost by his prevarication It was in him a principle of wisdome and obedience a relation between God and himself a title to the extraordinary mercies of God and a state of friendship when he fell he was discomposed in all the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken and it so continued in the whole life of man which was stained with the evils of this folly and the consequent mischiefs and therefore when we began the world again entring into the Articles of a new life God gave us his Spirit to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural end which God at first designed to us And therefore as our Baptism is a separation of us from unbelieving people so the descent of the holy Spirit upon us in our Baptism is a consigning or marking us for God as the sheep of his pasture as the souldiers of his Army as the servants of his houshold we are so separated from the world that we are appropriated to God so that God expects of us duty and obedience and all sins are acts of rebellion and undutifulnesse Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and Iohn the Baptist from their mothers womb that is God took them to his own service by an early designation and his Spirit mark'd them to a holy Ministery To this also relates that of S. Paul whom God by a decree separated from his mothers womb to the Ministery of the Gospel the decree did antedate the act of the Spirit which did not descend upon him untill the day of his Baptism What these persons were in order to exterior Ministeries that all the faithful are in order to faith and obedience consigned in Baptism by the Spirit of God to a perpetual relation to God in a continual service and title to his Promises And in this sense the Spirit of God is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} * a seal in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Water washes the body and the Spirit seals the soul viz. to a participation of those Promises which he hath made and to which we receive a title to our Baptism 2. The second effect of the Spirit is Light or Illuminations that is the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Authour of holy thoughts and firm perswasions and sets to his seal that the Word of God is true into the beliefe of which we are then baptized and makes Faith to be a grace and the Understanding resigned and the Will confident and the Assent stronger then the promises and the propositions to be believed because they are belov'd and we are taught the ways of godlinesse after a new manner that is we are made to perceive the secrets of the Kingdome and to love Religion and to long for heaven and heavenly things and to despise the world and to have new resolutions and new preceptions and new delicacies in order to the establishment of Faith and its increment and perseverance {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God sits in the soul when it is illuminated in Baptism as if he sate in his Throne that is he rules by a firm perswasion and intire principles of obedience And therefore Baptism is called in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the baptized {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} illuminated Call to minde the former days in which ye were illuminated and the same phrase is in the 6 to the Hebrewes where the parallel places expound each other For that which S. Paul calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} once illuminated he calls after {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a receiving the knowledge of the truth and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of Baptism the Apostle expresses it still by its Synonymas Tasting of the heavenly gift and made partakers of the holy Ghost sprinkled in our hearts from an evill conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water All which also are
and end together But I insist not on this though it seeems to me hugely probable All these blessings put into one syllabus have given to Baptism many honourable appellatives in Scripture and other divine Writers calling it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sacramentum vitae aeternae salutis A new birth a regeneration a renovation a charret carrying us to God the great Circumcision a Circumcision made without hands the Key of the Kingdome the paranymph of the Kingdome the earnest of our inheritance the answer of a good Conscience the robe of light the Sacrament of a new life and of eternal salvation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This is celestial water springing from the sides of the Rock upon the which the Church was built when the Rock was smitten with the Rod of God It remains now that we enquire what concerns our duty and in what persons or in what dispositions Baptism produces all these glorious effects For the Sacraments of the Church work in the vertue of Christ but yet onely upon such as are servants of Christ and hinder not the work of the Spirit of grace For the water of the Font and the Spirit of the Sacrament are indeed to wash away our sins and to purifie our souls but not unlesse we have a minde to be purified The Sacrament works pardon for them that hate their sin and procures grace for them that love it They that are guilty of sins must repent of them and renounce them and they must make a profession of the faith of Christ and give or be given up to the obedience of Christ and then they are rightly disposed He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved saith Christ and S. Peter call'd out to the whole assembly Repent and be baptized every one of you Concerning this Iustin Martyr gives the same account of the faith and practise of the Church {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. Whosoever are perswaded and believe those things to be true which are delivered and spoken by us and undertake to live accordingly they are commanded to fast and pray and to ask of God remission of their former sins we also praying together with them and fasting Then they are brought to us where water is and are regenerated in the same manner of regeneration by which we our selves are regenerated For in Baptism S. Peter observes there are two parts the body and the spirit that is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the putting away the filth of the flesh that is the material washing and this is Baptism no otherwise then a dead corps is a man the other is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the answer of a good conscience towards God that is the conversion of the soul to God that 's the effective disposition in which Baptism does save us And in the same sense are those sayings of the Primitive Doctors to be understood Anima non lavatione sed responsione sancitur The soul is not healed by washing viz. alone but by the answer the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in S. Peter the correspondent of our part of the Covenant for that 's the perfect sense of this unusuall expression And the effect is attributed to this and denied to the other when they are distinguished So Iustin Martyr affirms the onely Baptism that can heal us is Repentance and the knowledg of God For what need is there of that Baptism that can onely cleanse the flesh and the body Be washed in your flesh from wrath and covetousness from envy and hatred and behold the body is pure And Clemens Alex andrinus upon the Proverbial saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be not pure in the laver but in the minde addes I suppose that an exact and a firm repentance is a sufficient purification to a man if judging and considering our selves for the facts we have done before we proceed to that which is before us considering that which follows and cleansing or washing our minde from sensual affections and from former sins Just as we use to deny the effect to the instrumental cause and attribute it to the principal in the manner of speaking when our purpose is to affirm this to be the principal and of chief influence So we say It is not the good Lute but the skilful hand that makes the musick It is not the body but the soul that is the man and yet he is not the man without both For Baptism is but the material part in the Sacrament it is the Spirit that giveth life whose work is faith and repentance begun by himselfe without the Sacrament and consigned in the Sacrament and actuated and increased in the cooperation of our whole life and therefore Baptism is called in the Ierusalem Creed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins and by Iustin Martyr {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Baptism of Repentance and the knowledge of God which was made for the sins of the people of God He explains himself a little after {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Baptism that can onely cleanse them that are penitent In Sacramentis Trinitati occurrit Fides credentium professio quae apud acta conficitur Angelorum ubi miscentur coelestia spiritualia semina ut sancto germine nova possit renascentium indoles procreari ut dum Trinitas cum side concordat qui natus fuerit saeculo renascatur spiritualiter Deo Sic fit hominum pater Deus sancta fit mater Ecclesia said Optatus The faith and profession of the Believers meets with the ever-blessed Trinity and is recorded in the Register of Angels where heavenly and spiritual seeds are mingled that from so holy a Spring may be produced a new nature of the regeneration that while the Trinity viz. that is invocated upon the baptized meets with the faith of the Catechumen he that was born to to the world may be born spiritually to God So God is made a Father to the man and the holy Church a Mother Faith and Repentance strip the old man naked and make him fit for Baptism and then the holy Spirit moving upon the waters cleanses the soul and makes it to put on the new man who grows up to perfection and a spiritual life to a life of glory by our verification of the undertaking in Baptism on our part and the graces of the Spirit on the other For the waters pierce no further then the skin till the person puts off his affection to the sin that he hath contracted and then he may say Aquae intraverunt usque ad animam meam The waters are entred even unto my soul to purifie and cleanse it by the washing of water and the renewing by the holy Spirit The sum is this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
Thou shalt be a father of many Nations Thy name shall not be Abram but Abraham Nations and Kings shall be out of thee I will be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee and I will give all the Land of Canaan to thy seed and all the Males shall be circumcised and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and thee and he that is not circumcised shall be cut off from his people The Covenant which was on Abrahams part was To walk before God and to be perfect on Gods part To blesse him with a numerous issue and them with the Land of Canaan and the sign was Circumcision the token of the Covenant Now in all this here was no duty to which the posterity was obliged nor any blessing which Abraham could perceive or feel because neither he nor his posterity did enjoy the Promise for many hundred yeers after the Covenant and therefore as there was a duty for the posterity which is not here expressed so there was a blessing for Abraham which was concealed under the leaves of a temporall Promise and which we shall better understand from them whom the Spirit of God hath taught the mysteriousnesse of this transaction The Argument indeed and the observation is wholly S. Pauls Abraham and the Patriarchs died in faith not having received the Promises viz. of a possession in Canaan They saw the Promises afar off they embraced them and looked through the Cloud and the temporal veil this was not it they might have returned to Canaan if that had been the object of their desires and the design of the Promise but they desired and did seek a Countrey but it was a better and that a heavenly This was the object of their desire and the end of their search and the reward of their faith and the secret of their Promise And therefore Circumcision was a seal of the righteousnesse of faith which he had before his Circumcision before the making this Covenant and therefore it must principally relate to an effect and a blessing greater then was afterwards expressed in the temporall Promise which effect was forgivenesse of sins a not imputing to us our infirmities Justification by faith accounting that for righteousnesse and these effects or graces were promised to Abraham not onely for his posterity after the flesh but his children after the spirit even to all that shall beleive and walk in the steps of our father Abraham which he walked in being yet uncircumcised This was no other but the Covenant of the Gospel though afterwards otherwise consigned for so the Apostle expresly affirms that Abraham was the father of Circumcision viz. by virtue of this Covenant not onely to them that are circumcised but to all that believe for this promise was not through the law of works or of circumcision but of faith And therefore as S. Paul observes God promised that Abraham should be a father not of that Nation onely but of many Nations and the heir of the world that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Iesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith And if ye be Christs then ye are Abrahams seed and heirs according to the Promise Since then the Covenant of the Gospel is the Covenant of Faith and not of Works and the Promises are spiritual not secular and Abraham the father of the faithfull Gentiles as well as the circumcised Iews and the heir ef the world not by himselfe but by his seed or the Son of Man our Lord Jesus it follows that the Promises which Circumcision did seal were the same Promises which are consigned in Baptism the Covenant is the same onely that Gods people are not impal'd in Palestine and the veil is taken away and the temporal is passed into spiritual and the result will be this That to as many persons and in as many capacities and in the same dispositions as the Promises were applyed and did relate in Circumcision to the same they doe belong and may be applyed in Baptism And let it be remembred That the Covenant which Circumcision did sign was a Covenant of Grace and Faith the Promises were of the Spirit or spiritual it was made before the Law and could not be rescinded by the Legal Covenant Nothing could be added to it or taken from it and we that are partakers of this grace are therefore partakers of it being Christs servants united to Christ and so are become Abrahams seed as the Apostle at large and professedly proves in divers places but especially in the 4. of the Romans and the 3. to the Galatians and therefore if Infants were then admitted to it and consigned to it by a Sacrament which they understood not any more then ours doe there is not any reason why ours should not enter in at the ordinary gate and door of Grace as well as they Their children were circumcised the Eighth day but were instructed afterwards when they could enquire what these things meant Indeed their Proselytes were first taught then circumcised so are ours baptized but their Infants were consigned first and so must ours 3. In Baptism we are born again and this Infants need in the present circumstances and for the same great reason that men of age and reason doe For our natural birth is either of it selfe insufficient or is made so by the fall of Adam and the consequent evils that nature alone or our first birth cannot bring us to heaven which is a supernatural end that is an end above all the power of our nature as now it is So that if nature cannot bring us to heaven grace must or we can never get thither if the first birth cannot a second must but the second birth spoken of in Scripture is Baptism A man must be born of water and the spirit And therefore Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the laver of a new birth Either then Infants cannot go to heaven any way that we know of or they must be baptized To say they are to be left to God is an excuse and no answer for when God hath opened the door and calls that the entrance into heaven we doe not leave them to God when we will not carry them to him in the way which he hath described and at the door which himself hath opened we leave them indeed but it is but helplesse and destitute and though God is better then Man yet that is no warrant to us what it will be to the children that we cannot warrant or conjecture And if it be objected That to the new birth is required dispositions of our own which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of reason besides that this is wholly against the Analogy of a new birth in which the person to be born is wholly a passive and hath put into him the
A DISCOVRSE OF Baptisme ITS INSTITUTION and Efficacy upon all Beleevers Together with A CONSIDERATION of the Practise of the CHURCH IN BAPTIZING INFANTS of BELEEVING PARENTS And the Practise justified By JER TAYLOR D. D. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not c. LONDON Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivy-Lane MDCLIII To the Reader BEe pleased to take notice That this Discourse was not intended by the Author to have been sent abroad thus by it self but was fitted by him to the ayr and mode of other Discourses wherewith he had designed it to be joyned But some persons of judgement to whose perusal it was committed supposing that if this should be kept in till those other could be finished some disadvantage might arise to the cause which it asserts wished and advised it might be published by it self To whose desires the Author against his first design hath condescended upon this perswasion That though it appears thus without some formalities and complements requisite to an intire Treatise yet as to the thing it self there is nothing wanting to it which he believed material to the Question or useful to the Church And as for those Arguments which in The Liberty of Prophecying Sect. 18. are alledged against Paedobaptism and in the opinion of some doe seem to stand in need of answering he had it once in thought to have answered them but upon these considerations he forbore 1. Because those Arguments are not good in themselves or to the Question precisely considered but onely by relation to the preceding Arguments there brought for Paedobaptim they may seem good one against another but these in the Plea for the Anababaptists have no strength but what is accidental as he conceives 2. Because in this Discourse he hath really laid-such grounds and proved them that upon their supposition all those Arguments in The Liberty of Prophecying and all other which he ever heard of will fall of themselves 3. Because those Arguments to his sense are so weak and so relying upon failing and deceitful Principles that he was loath to do them so much reputation as to account them worthy the answering 4. But because there may he some necessities which he knows not of and are better observed by them who live in the midst of them then by himself who is thrust into a Retirement in Wales therefore he accounts himself at rest in this particular because he hath understood that his very worthy friend Dr. H. Hammond hath in his charity and humility descended to answer that Collection and hopes that both their hands being so fast clasped in a mutual complication will doe some help and assistance to this Question by which the Ark of the Church is so violently shaken A DISCOURSE Of BAPTISM WHen the holy Jesus was to begin his Prophetical Office and to lay the foundation of his Church on the Corner-stone he first temper'd the Cement with water and then with blood and afterwards built it up by the hands of the Spirit Himself enter'd at that door by which his disciples for ever after were to follow him for therefore he went in at the door of Baptism that he might hallow the entrance which himself made to the House he was no building As it was in the old so it is in the new Creation out of the waters God produced every living creature and when at first the Spirit moved upon the waters and gave life it was the type of what was designed in the Renovation Every thing that lives now is born of Water and the Spirit and Christ who is our Creator and Redeemer in the new birth opened the fountains and hallowed the stream Christ who is our life went down into the waters of Baptism and we who descend thither finde the effects of life it is living water of which who so drinks needs not to drink of it again for it shall be in him a Well of water springing up to life eternall But because everything is resolved into the same principles from whence they are taken the old world which by the power of God came from the waters by their own sin fell into the waters again and were all-drowned and onely eight persons were saved by an Ark and the world renewed upon the stock and reserves of that mercy consigned the Sacrament of Baptism in another figure for then God gave his sign from Heaven that by water the world should never again perish but he meant that they should be saved by water for Baptism which is a figure like to this doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ After this the Jews report that the world took up the doctrine of Baptisms in remembrance that the iniquity of the old world was purged by water and they washed all that came to the service of the true God and by that Baptisme bound them to the observation of the Precepts which God gave to Noah But when God separated a family for his own especial service he gave them a Sacrament of initiation but it was a Sacrament of blood the Covenant of Circumcision and this was the fore-runner of Baptism but not a type when that was abrogated this came into the place of it and that consigned the same faith which this professes but it could not properly be a type whose nature is by a likeness of matter or ceremony to represent the same mystery Neither is a Ceremony as Baptism truly is properly capable of having a type it selfe is but a type of a greater mysteriousness and the nature of types is in shadow to describe by dark lines a future substance so that although Circumcision might be a type of the effects and graces bestowed in Baptism yet of the Baptism or absolution it selfe it cannot be properly because of the unlikeness of the symboles and configurations and because they are both equally distant from substances which types are to consign and represent The first Bishops of Ierusalem and all the Christian Jews for many years retained Circumcision together with Baptism and Christ himselfe who was circumcised was also baptized and therefore it is not so proper to call Circumcision a type of Baptism it was rather a seal and sign of the same Covenant to Abraham and the Fathers and to all Israel as Baptism is to all ages of the Christian Church And because this Rite could not be administred to all persons and was not at all times after its institution God was pleased by a proper and specifick type to consign this Rite of Baptism which he intended to all and that for ever and God when the family of his Church grew separate notorious numerous and distinct he sent them into their own Countrey by a Baptism through which the whole Nation pass'd for all the fathers were under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea and were all
should enjoy their pleasure in the Acostrich but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article Nos pisciculi secundum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nostrum Iesum Christum in aquâ nascimur Christ whom you call a fish we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour and we if you please are the little fishes for we are born in water thence we derive our spiritual life And because from henceforward we are a new creation the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors and at their entrance into Baptism the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives Nec quicquam prius imbuuntur quà m contemnere Deos exuere patriam parentes liberos fratres vilia habere said Tacitus of the Christians which was true in the sense onely as Christ said He that deth not hate father or mother for my sake is not worthy of me that is he that doth not hate them prae me rather then forsake me forsake them is unworthy of me 4. In Baptism all our sins are pardoned according to the words of a Prophet I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesse The Catechumen descends into the font a sinner he arises purified he goes down the son of death he comes up the son of the resurrection he enters in the son of folly and praevarication he returns the son of reconciliation he stoops down the childe of wrath and ascends the heir of mercy he was the childe of the Devil and now he is the servant and the son of God They are the words of Ven. Bede concerning this Mystery And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font which is so prettily contriv'd that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner and be exactly the same {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lord wash my sin and not my face onely And so it is intended and promised Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins and call on the Name of the Lord said Ananias to Saul for Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with the washing of water in the word that is Baptism in the Christian Religion and therefore Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum a compendious laver that is an intire cleansing the soul in that one action justly and rightly performed In the rehearsal of which doctrine it was not an unpleasant Etymology that Anastasius Sinaita gave of Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quasi {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in which our sins are thrown off and they fall like leeches when they are full of blood and water or like the chains from S. Peters hands at the presence of the Angel Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an intirefull forgivenesse of sins so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny Omnia Daemonis arma His merguntur aquis quibus ille renascitur Infans Qui captivus erat the captivity of the soul is taken away by the blood of Redemption and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters and what the flames of hell are expiating or punishing to eternal ages that is washed off quickly in the Holy Font and an eternal debt paid in an instant for so sure as the Egyptians were drowned in the Red sea so sure are our sins washed in this holy flood for this is a Red sea too these waters signifie the blood of Christ these are they that have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The blood of Christ cleanseth us the water cleanseth us the Spirit purifies us the Blood by the Spirit the Spirit by the Water all in Baptism and in pursuance of that baptismal state These three are they that bear record in earth the Spirit the Water and the blood {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} these three agree in one or are to one purpose they agree in Baptism and in the whole pursuance of the assistances which a Christian needs all dayes of his life And therefore S. Cyril calls Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Antitype of the Passions of Christ it does preconsign the death of Christ and does the infancy of the work of grace but not weakly it brings from death to life and though it brings us but to the birth in the new life yet that is a greater change then is in all the periods of our growth to manhood to a perfect man in Christ Iesus 5. Baptism does not onely pardon our sins but puts us into a state of pardon for the time to come Eor Baptism is the beginning of the New life and an admission of us into the Evangelical Covenant which on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endeavour to glorify God by Faith and Obedience and on Gods part he will pardon what is past assist us for the future and not measure us by grains and scruples or exact our duties by the measure of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand So that by Baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the graces of the Gospel that is that our pardon be continued and our piety be a state of Repentance And therefore that Baptism which in the Nicene Creed we profess to be for the remission of sins is called in the Ierusalem Creed The Baptism of Repentance that is it is the entrance of a new life the gate to a perpetual change and reformation all the way continuing our title to and hopes of forgiveness of sins And this excellency is clearly recorded by S. Paul The kindeness and love of God our Saviour toward man hath appeared not by works in righteousness which we have done that 's the formality of the Gospel-Covenant not to be exacted by the strict measures of the Law but according to his mercy he saved us that is by gentleness and remissions by pitying pardoning us by relieving and supporting us because he remembers that we are but dust and all this mercy we are admitted to and is conveyed to us {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by the laver of regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost And this plain evident doctrine was observed explicated and urged against the Messalians who said that Baptism was like a razor that cut away all the sins that were past or presently adhering but not the sins of our future life {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This Sacrament promises more and greater things It is the earnest of future good things the type of the Resurrection the communication of the Lords Passion the
a syllabus or collection of the severall effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism But we are now instancing in that which relates most properly to the understanding in which respect the holy Spirit also is called anointing or unction and the mystery is explicated by S. Iohn The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things 3. The holy Spirit descends upon us in Baptism to become the principle of a new life to become a holy seed springing up to holinesse and is called by S. Iohn {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the seed of God and the purpose of it we are taught by him Whosoever is born of God that is he that is regenerated and entred into this new birth doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life and now that he by the Spirit is born anew he hath in him that principle which if it be cherished will grow up to life to life eternall And this is the Spirit of Sanctification the victory of the world the deletery of concupiscence the life of the soul and the perpetual principle of grace sown in our spirits in the day of our adoption to be the sons of God and members of Christs body But take this mystery in the words of S. Basil There are two ends proposed in Baptism to wit to abolish the body of sin that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death and to live in the Spirit and to have our fruit to Sanctification The water represents the image of death receiving the body in its bosome as in a sepulchre But the quickning Spirit sends upon us a vigorous {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} power or efficacy even from the beginning renewing our souls from the death of sin unto life For as our mortification is perfected in the water so the Spirit works life in us To this purpose is the discourse of S. Paul having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of Christ he addes this as the Corollary of all He that is dead is freed from sin * that is being mortified and buried in the waters of Baptism we have a new life of righteousnesse put into us we are quitted from the dominion of sin and are planted together in the likenesse of Christs Resurrection that henceforth we should not serve sin 4. But all these intermediall blessings tend to a glorious Conclusion for Baptism does also consign us to a holy Resurrection it takes the sting of death from us by burying us together with Christ and takes off sin which is the sting of death and then we shall be partakers of a blessed Resurrection This we are taught by Saul Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection That declares the real event in its due season But because Baptism consigns it and admits us to a title to it we are said with S. Paul to be risen with Christ in Baptism buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God which hath raised him from the dead which expression I desire to be remembred that by it we may better understand those other sayings of the Apostle of putting on Christ in Baptism putting on the new man c. for these onely signifie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the design on Gods part and the endevour and duty on mans we are then consigned to our duty and to our reward we undertake one and have a title to the other and though men of ripeness and reason enter instantly into their portion of work and have present use of the assistances and something of their reward in hand yet we cannot conclude that those that cannot do it presently are not baptized rightly because they are not in capacity to put on the new man in righteousnesse that is in an actual holy life for they may put on the new man in Baptism just as they are risen with Christ which because it may be done by faith before it is done in real event and it may be done by Sacrament and design before it be done by a proper faith so also may our putting on the new man be It is done sacramentally and that part which is wholly the work of God does onely antedate the work of man which is to succeed in its due time and is after the manner of preventing grace but this is by the by In order to the present article Baptism is by Theodoret called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a participation of the Lords Resurrection 5. And lastly by Baptism we are saved that is we are brought from death to life here and that is the first Resurrection and we are bought from death to life hereafter by vertue of the Covenant of the state of Grace into which in Baptism we enter and are preserved from the second death and receive a glorious and an eternal life He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved said our blessed Saviour and according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost After these great blessings so plainly testified in Scripture and the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which are regularly consigned add bestowed in Baptism I shall lesse need to descend to temporal blessings or rare contingencies or miraculous events or probable notices of things lesse certain of this nature are those stories recorded in the writings of the Church that Constantine was cured of a Leprosie in Baptism Theodosius recovered of his disease being baptized by the Bishop of Thessalonica and a paralytick Jew was cured as soon as he became a Christian and was baptized by Atticus of C. P. and Bishop Arnulph baptizing a Leper also cured him said Vincentius Bellovacensis It is more considerable which is generally and piously believed by very many eminent persons in the Church That at our Baptism God assigns an Angel Guardian for then the Catechumen being made a Servant and a Brother to the Lord of Angels is sure not to want the aids of them who pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lord and that this guard and mininistery is then appointed when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the Promises and their title to Salvation is hugely agreeable to the words of S. Paul Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation where it appears that the title to the inheritance is the title to this ministery and therefore must begin
benefit which belongs to the remission of sins For Baptism is a state of Repentance and pardon for ever This I suppose to be already proved to which I onely adde this Caution That the Pelagians to undervalue the necessity of supervening grace affirmed That Baptism did minister to us grace sufficient to live perfectly and without sin for ever Against this S. Ierome sharply declaims and affirms a Baptismum praeterita donare â—â—ccata non futuram servare justitiam that is non statim juâ—tum facit omni plenum justitiâ as he expounds his meaning in another place Vetera peccata conscindit novas virtutes non tribuit dimittit à carcere dimisso si laboraverit praemia pollicetur Baptism does not so forgive future sins that we may doe what we please or so as we need not labour and watch and fear perpetually and make use of Gods grace to actuate our endevours but puts us into a state of pardon that is in a Covenant of Grace in which so long as we labour and repent and strive to doe our duty so long our infirmities are pityed and our sins certain to be pardoned upon their certain conditions that is by virtue of it we are capable of pardon and must work for it and may hope it And therefore Infants have a most certain capaciry and proper disposition to Baptism for sin creeps before it can go and little undecencies are soon learned and malice is before their yeers and they can do mischief and irregularities betimes and though we know not when nor how far they are imputed in every moneth of their lives yet it is an admirable art of the Spirit of grace to put them into a state of pardon that their remedy may at least be as soon as their necessity And therefore Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen advised the Baptism of children to be at three or four yeers of age meaning that they then beginning to have little inadvertencies hasty follies and actions so evil as did need a lavatory But if Baptism hath an influence upon sins in the succeeding portions of our life then it is certain that their being presently innocent does not hinder and ought not to retard the Sacrament and therefore Tertullian's Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissiionem peccatorum what need Innocents hasten to the remission of sins is soon answered It is true they need not in respect of any actual sins for so they are innocent but in respect of the evils of their nature derived from their original and in respect of future sins in the whole state of their life it is necessary they be put into a state of pardon before they sin because some sin early some sin later and therefore unlesse they be baptized so early as to prevent the first sins they may chance dye in a sin to the pardon of which they have yet derived no title from Christ 6. The next great effect of Baptism which children can have is the Spirit of Sanctification and if they can be baptized with Water and the Spirit it will be sacriledge to rob them of so holy treasures And concerning this although it be with them as S. Paul sayes of Heirs The heir so long as he is a childe differeth nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all and children although they receive the Spirit of Promise and the Spirit of Grace yet in respect of actual exercise they differ not from them that have them not at all yet this hinders not but they may have them For as the reasonahle soul and all its faculties are in children Will and Understanding Passions and Powers of Attraction and Propulsion yet these faculties doe not operate or come abroad till time and art observation and experience have drawn them forth into action so may the Spirit of Grace the principle of Christian life be infused and yet lye without action till in its own day it is drawn forth For in every Christian there are three parts concurring to his integral constitution Body and Soul and Spirit and all these have their proper activities and times but every one in his own order first that which is natural then that which is spiritual And as Aristotle said A man first lives the life of a plant then of a beast and lastly of a man is true in this sense and the more spiritual the principle is the longer it is before it operates because more things concur to spiritual actions then to naturall and these are necessary and therefore first the other are perfect and therefore last And who is he that so well understands the Philosophy of this third principle of a Christians life the Spirit as to know how or when it is infused and how it operates in all its periods and what it is in its being and proper nature and whether it be like the soul or like the faculty or like a habit or how or to what purposes God in all varieties does dispense it These are secrets which none but bold people use to decree and build propositions upon their own dreams That which is certain is that The Spirit is the principle of a new life or a new birth That Baptisme is the laver of this new birth That it is the seed of God and may lye long in the furrows before it springs up That from the faculty to the act the passage is not alwayes sudden and quick That the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance that is of Resurrection to eternal life which inheritance because children we hope shall have they cannot be denied to have its Seal and Earnest that is if they shall have all they are not to be denyed a part That children have some effects of the Spirit and therefore do receive it and are baptized with the Spirit and therefore may with Water which thing is therefore true and evident because some children are sanctified as Ieremy and the Baptist and therefore all may And because all signification of persons is an effect of the holy Ghost there is no peradventure but they that can be sanctified by God can in that capacity receive the holy Ghost and all the ground of dissenting here is onely upon a mistake because Infants do no act of holiness they suppose them incapable of the grace of Sanctification Now Sanctification of children is their adoption to the inheritance of sons their presentation to Christ their consignation to Christs service and to Resurrection their being put into a possibility of being saved their restitution to Gods favour which naturally that is as our nature is depraved and punished they could not have And in short the case is this Original Righteousness was in Adam after the manner of nature but it was an act or effect of grace and by it men were not made but born righteous the inferior faculties obeyed the superior the minde was whole and right and conformable to the Divine Image the Reason and
the Will alwayes concurring the Will followed Reason and Reason followed the Laws of God and so long as a man had not lost this he was pleasing to God and should have passed to a more perfect state Now because this if Adam had stood should have been born with every childe there was in Infants a principle which was the seed of holy life here and a blessed hereafter and yet the children should have gone in the road of nature then as well as now and the Spirit should have operated at natures leisure God being the giver of both would have made them instrumental to and perfective of each other but not destructive Now what was lost by Adam is restored by Christ the same Righteousnesse onely it is not born but superinduc'd not integral but interrupted but such as it is there is no difference but that the same or the like principle may be derived to us from Christ as there should have been from Adam that is a principle of obedience a regularity of faculties a beauty in the soul and a state of acceptation with God And we see also in men of understanding and reason the Spirit of God dwells in them which Tatianus describing uses these words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The soul is possessed with sparks or materials of the power of the spirit and yet it is sometimes ineffective and unactive sometimes more sometimes lesse and does no more doe its work at all times then the soul does at all times understand Adde to this That if there be in Infants naturally an evill principle a proclivity to sin an ignorance and pravity of minde a disorder of affections as experience teaches us there is and the perpetual doctrine of the Church and the universal mischiefs issuing from mankinde and the sinne of every man does witnesse too much why cannot Infants have a good principle in them though it works not till its own season as well as an evill principle If there were not by nature some evill principle it is not possible that all the world should choose sin In free agents it was never heard that all individuals loved and chose the same thing to which they were not naturally inclined Neither doe all men choose to marry neither doe all choose to abstain and in this instance there is a natural incclination to one part but of all the men and women in the world there is no one that hath never sinned If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us said an Apostle If therefore nature hath in Infants an evill principle which operates when the childe can choose but is all the while within the sou either Infants have by grace a principle put into them or else sin abounds where grace does not superabound expressely against the doctrine of the Apostle The event of this discourse is that if Infants be capable of the Spirit of grace there is no reason but they may and ought to be baptized as well as men and women unlesse God had expressely forbidden them which cannot be pretended that Infants are capable of the Spirit of grace I think it made very credible Christus infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes said Irenaeus Christ became an Infant among the Infants and does sanctify Infants and S. Cyprian affirms Esse apud omnes sive infantes sive majores natu unam divini muneris aequitatem There is the same dispensation of the divine grace to all alike to Infants as well as to men And in this Royall Priesthood as it is in the secular Kings may be anointed in their Cradles Dat Deus sui Spiritus occultissimam gratiam quam etiam latentèr infundit in parvulis God gives the most secret grace of his Spirit which he also secretly infuses into Infants And if a secret infusion be rejected because it cannot he proved at the place and at the instant many men that hope for heaven will be very much to seek for a proof of their earnest and need an earnest of the earnest For all that have the Spirit of God cannot in all instants prove it or certainly know it neither is it yet defined by how many indices the Spirits presence can be proved or signified And they limit the Spirit too much and understand it too little who take accounts of his secret workings and measure them by the material lines and methods of natural and animal effects And yet because whatsoever is holy is made so by the holy Spirit we are certain that the children of believing that is of Christian parents are holy S. Paul affirmed it and by it hath distinguished ours from the children of unbelievers and our marriages from theirs and because the children of the Heathen when they come to choice and reason may enter to Baptism and the Covenant if they will our children have no priviledge beyond the children of Turks or Heathens unlesse it be in the present capacity that is either by receiving the holy Ghost immediately and the Promises or at least having a title to the Sacrament and entring by that door If they have the Spirit nothing can hinder them from a title to the water and if they have onely a title to the water of the Sacrament then they shall receive the Promise of the holy Spirit the benefits of the Sacrament else their priviledge is none at all but a dish of cold water which every village nurse can provide for her new-born babe But it is in our case as it was with the Jews children our children are a holy seed for if it were not so with Christianity how could S. Peter move the Jews to Christianity by telling them the Promise was to them and their children For if our children be not capable of the Spirit of Promise and Holiness and yet their children were holy it had been a better Argument to have kept them in the Synagogue then to have called them to the Christian Church Either therefore 1. there is some holiness in a reasonable nature which is not from the Spirit of holiness or else 2. our children do receive the holy Spirit because they are holy or if they be not holy they are in worse condition under Christ then under Moses or if none of all this be true then our children are holy by having received the holy Spirit of Promise and consequently nothing can hinder them from being baptized And indeed if the Christian Jews whose children are circumcised and made partakers of the same Promises and Title and Inheritance and Sacraments which themselves had at their conversion to the faith of Christ had seen their children now shut out from these new Sacraments it is not to be doubted but they would have raised a storm greater then could easily have been suppressed since about their Circumcisions they had raised such Tragedies and implacable disputations and there had been great reason to look
for a storm for their children were circumcised and if not baptized then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of for S. Paul said unto you Whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law These children therefore that were circumcised stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Laws of Ceremonies to be presented into the Temple to pay their price to be redeemed with silver and gold to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal ordinances and therefore if they had been thus left it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult they used to do it for less matters To which let this be added That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christs Ascension and S. Marks Gospel twelve years In the mean time to what Scriptures did they appeal by the analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions whence did they prove their Articles They onely appealed to the Old Testament and onely added what their Lord superadded Now either it must be said that our blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized which is no where pretended and if it were cannot at all be proved or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God and preach the Religion it is plain that by the Analogy of the Old Testament that is of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come and to have suffered they also approved the Baptism of Infants or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews of which also the Church did then principally consist 7. That Baptism which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection doth also equally consign Infants to it hath nothing that I know of pretended against it there being the same signature and the same grace and in this thing all being alike passive and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of grace and Infants have an equall necessity as being lyable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents and dying sooner then men and women and less able to complain and more apt to be pityed and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life and a speedy death infelicitate priscorum hominum with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents and therefore have as great need as any and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another 8. And after all this if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace we have nothing to relye upon but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of salvation save onely we are to adde this that because of this law Infants are not personally capable but the Church for them as for all others indefinitely we have reason to believe that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplyed but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability This we may be certain of that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation for by nature we are children of wrath and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature either therefore children must be put into the state of grace or they shall dwell for ever where Gods face does never shine Now there are but two wayes of being put into the state of grace and salvation the inward by the Spirit and the outward by Water which regularly are together If they be renewed by the Spirit what hinders them to be baptized who receive the holy Ghost as well as we If they are not capable of the Spirit they are capable of Water and if of neither where is their title to heaven which is neither internal nor external neither spiritual nor sacramental neither secret nor manifest neither natural nor gracious neither original nor derivative And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter heaven without any difference expressed or case reserved we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children but may weep as they that have no hope We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand and then it cannot miscarry and though we know nothing of the children yet we know much of Gods goodness But when God hath permitted it to us that is offered and permitted children to our ministery whatever happens to the Innocents we may well fear left God will require the souls at our hands and we cannot be otherwise secure but that it will be said concerning our children which S. Ambrose used in a case like this Anima illa potuit salva fieri si habuisset purgationem This soul might have gone to God if it had been purified and washed We know God is good infinitely good but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness and he tempts him that leaves the usual way and pretends it is not made for him and yet hopes to be at his journeys end or expects to meet his childe in heaven when himself shuts the door against him which for ought he knows is the onely one that stands open S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants therefore he is called durus Pater Infantium though I know not why the original of that opinion should be attributed to him since S. Ambrose said the same before him as appears in his words above quoted in the margent And now that I have enumerated the blessings which are consequent to Baptism and have also made apparent That Infants can receive these blessings I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring children to Baptism If it be certain they may receive these good things by it it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety and sacriledge and uncharitableness in the world Nay if it be onely probable that they receive these blessings or if it be but possible they may nay unless it be impossible they should and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty innocents to let their crying be unpityed and their natural misery eternally irremediable and their sorrows without remedy and their souls no more capable of relief then their bodies of Physick and their death left with the sting in and their Souls without Spirits to go to God and no Angel guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and Gods Church All these are sad stories There are in
Scripture very many other probabilities to perswade the Baptism of Infants but because the places admit of divers interpretations the Arguments have so many diminutions and the certainty that is in them is too fine for easie understandings I have chosen to build the ancient doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary This onely I shall observe That the words of our blessed Lord Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven cannot be expounded to the exclusion of children but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men for if they be both necessary ingredients Water and the Spirit then let us provide water and God will provide the Spirit if we bring wood to the Sacrifice he will provide a Lamb And if they signifie distinctly one is ordinarily as necessary as the other and then Infants must be baptized or not be saved But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other and by Water and the Spirit is meant onely the purification of the Spirit then where is the necessity of Baptism for men It will be as the other Sacrament at most but highly convenient not simply necessary and all the other places will easily be answered if this be avoided But however these words being spoken in so decretory a manner are to be used with fear and reverence and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments that Infants ought not to be baptized or we ought to fear concerning the effect of these decretory words I shall onely adde two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse That the Church of God ever since her numbers are full have for very many ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been baptized in their Infancy and although in the first callings of the Gentiles the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and repenting persons and believers yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents according to the Prophecy of Isaiah Behold I will lift up my hands to the Gentiles and set up a standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Concerning which I shall not onely bring the testimonies of the matter of fact but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition or some Argument from the Fathers which will make their testimony more effectuall in all that shall relate to the Question The Author of the book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy attributed to S. Denis the Areopagite takes notice that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian Religion think it a ridiculous thing that Infants who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries should be partakers of the Sacraments and that professions and abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names He answers that Holy men Governors of Churches have so taught having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ by which answer of his as it appears that he himself was later then the Areopagite so it is so early by him affirmed that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament Concerning which it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe then like scorners deride it in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty For what undecency or incongruity is it that our parents natural or spiritual should stipulate for us when it is agreeable to the practise of all the laws and transactions of the world an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we all were included in the stipulation made with Adam he made a losing bargain for himself and we smarted for his folly and if the faults of Parents and Kings and relatives do bring evil upon their children and subjects and correlatives it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and piety But concerning making an agreement for them we finde that God was confident concerning Abraham that he would teach his children and there is no doubt but Parents have great power by strict education and prudent discipline to efform the mindes of their children to vertue Joshua did expresly undertake for his houshold I and my house will serve the Lord and for children we may better do it because till they are of perfect choice no Government in the world is so great as that of Parents over their children in that which can concern the parts of this Question for they rule over their understandings and children know nothing but what they are told and they believe it infinitely and it is a rare art of the Spirit to engage Parents to bring them up well in the nuriure and admonition of the Lord they are persons obliged by a superinduced band they are to give them instructions and holy principles as they give them meat and it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their children then the Church can for men and women for they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites as the Church story tells of some and consequently are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not really converted and ineffectively baptized and the next day they may change their resolution and grow weary of their Vow and that is the most that children can do when they come to age and it is very much in the Parents whether the children shall do any such thing or no purus insons Ut me collaudem si vivo carus amicis Causa fuit Pater his Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat quid multa pudicum Qui primus virtutis honos servavit ab omni Non solùm facto verùm opprobrio quoque turpi ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur à me gratia major Horat For Education can introduce a habit and a second nature against which children cannot kick unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations And although it fails too often when ever it fails yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less influence into the event then in the present case and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate and less reason in the thing it self and therefore have not so much reason to be confident Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing future events and guessing at the designs of their enemies concerning which they have less reason to be confident then Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed To which I adde this consideration That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and
prudently promise that their children shall be of the Christian faith because we not onely see millions of men and women who not onely believe the whole Creed onely upon the stock of their education but there are none that ever do renounce the faith of their Countrey and breeding unless they be violently tempted by interest or weakness antecedent or consequent He that sees all men almost to be Christians because they are bid to be so need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the children for whom they answer And however the matter be for Godfathers yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of Irenaeus Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad ipsam erat similitudinem Omnes n. venit per semetipsum salvare omnes inquam qui per eum renascuntur in Deum infantes parvulos pueros juvenes seniores Ideo per omnem venit aetatem infantibus infans factus sanctificās infantes in parvulis parvulus c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it and similitude to it For he came to save all men by himself I say all who by him are born again unto God Infants and children and boyes and yong men and old men He was made an Infant to Infants sanctifying Infants a little one to the little ones c. And Origen is express Ecclesia traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit etiam parvulis dare baptismum The Church hath received a Tradition from the Apostles to give Baptism to Children And S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Fidus gives account of this Article for being questioned by some lesse skilfull persons whether it were lawfull to baptize Children before the eighth day he gives account of the whole question and a whole Councell of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed that their baptism should at no hand be deferred though whether six or eight or ten dayes was no matter so there be no danger or present necessity The whole epistle is worth the reading But besides these authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions it will not be useless to bring their discourses of them and others I mean the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after Irenaeus his argument was this Christ tooke upon him our nature to sanctifie and to save it and passed through the severall periods of it even unto death which is the symbole and effect of old age and therefore it is certaine he did sanctifie all the periods of it and why should he be an infant but that infants should receive the Crowne of their age the purification of their stained nature the sanctification of their persons and the saving of their soules by their Infant Lord and elder Brother Omnis enim anima eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseatur tamdiu immunda quamdiu recenseatur Every soul is accounted in Adam till it be new accounted in Christ and so long as it is accounted in Adam so long it is uncleane and we know no uncleane thing can enter into heaven and therefore our Lord hath defined it Unlesse ye be born of water and the spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven that is ye cannot be holy It was the argument of Tertullian which the rather is to be received because he was one lesse favorable to the custome of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants which custome he noted and acknowledged and hath also in the preceding discourse fairely proved And indeed that S. Cyprian may superadde his Symbol God who is no accepter of persons will also be no accepter of ages For if to the greatest delinquents sinning long before against God remission of sins be given when afterwards they beleive and from Baptisme and from Grace no man is forbidden how much more ought not an Infant be forbidden who being new born hath sinned nothing save onely that being in the flesh born of Adam in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of an old death Who therefore comes the easier to obtain remission of sins because to him are forgiven not his own but the sins of another man None ought to be driven from Baptism and the Grace of God who is mercifull and gentle and pious unto all and therefore much lesse Infants who more deserve our aid and more need the divine mercy because in the first beginning of their birth crying and weeping they can do nothing but call for mercy and reliefe For this reason it was saith Origen that they to whom the secrets of the Divine mysteries were committed did baptize their Infants because there was born with them the Impurities of sin which did need material absolution as a Sacrament of spiritual purification for that it may appear that our sins have a proper analogy to this Sacrament the body it self is called the body of sin and therefore the washing of the body is not ineffectual towards the great work of pardon and abolition Indeed after this absolution there remains concupiscence or the material part of our misery and sin For Christ by his death onely took away that which when he did dye for us he bore in his own body upon the tree Now Christ onely bore the punishment of our sin and therefore we shall not dye for it but the material part of the sin Christ bore not Sin could not come so neer him It might make him sick and dye but not disordered and stained He was pure from Original and Actual sins and therefore that remains in the body though the guilt and punishment be taken off and changed into advantages and grace and the Actual are cured by the Spirit of grace descending afterwards upon the Church and sent by our Lord to the same purpose But it is not rationally to be answered what S. Ambrose sayes quia omnis peccato obnoxia ideo omnis aetas Sacramento idonea For it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent and most unconsenting persons and that they onely should be left without a Sacrament and an instrument of expiation And although they cannot consent to the present susception yet neither do they refuse and yet they consent as much to the grace of the Sacrament as to the prevarication of Adam and because they suffer under this it were but reason they should be relieved by that And * it were better as Gregory Nazianzen affirms that they should be consigned and sanctified without their own knowledge then to dye without their being sanctified for so it happened to the circumcised babes of Israel and if the conspersion and washing the doore posts with the blood of a lamb did sacramentally preserve all the first-born of Goshen it cannot be thought impossible or unreasonable that the want of understanding in children should hinder them from