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 unless they were strangely preventedly a sudden accident a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition but early some of them durst not take it much less in the beginning of their years that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth Baptism 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 sanctumque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem The holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism and makes them prolifical 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 sacramently dead and buried by the Spirit we are made alive But because these are mysterious expressions and according to the style of Scripture 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 Soul of a man 1. It is the suppletory of original Righteousness 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 undutifulness Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and John 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 until 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 Illumination that is the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Author of holy thoughts and firm perswasions and fets to his seal that the Word of God is true into the belief 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 premises and the propositions to be believed because they are belov'd and we are taught the wayes of godliness 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 perceptions 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 dayes in which ye were illuminated and the same phrase is in the 6. to the Hebrews 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 evil conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water All which also are a syllabus or collection of the several
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 Go 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 Commandments 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 Vnless 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 childe 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 John 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 Commandment No Tradition is more universal no not of Scripture it self no words are plainer no not the Ten Commandments and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any jealous or less 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 Commandments 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 Sacrament 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 or 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 eternal 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 spiritualities of the Kingdome and this is the expression which our Saviour himself used to Nicodemus Vnless 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 inhetance 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 inheritance 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 it 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 should
baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea so by a double figure foretelling That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath so should all the persons of the Church Men Women and Children be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant he proved that we do not exceed them and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us nor their children ours But after this something was to remain which might not onely consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham but be as a passage from the Fathers thorough the Synagogue to the Church from Abraham by Moses to Christ and that was Circumcision which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace and to be a seal of the righteousness of faith which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males yet it was not to the females and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea yet the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes and to all that were circumcised and the Jews deliver That Sarah and Rebecca when they were adopted into the family of the Church that is of Abraham and Isaac were baptized and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel And that we may think this typical of Christian Baptism the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition that when the Messias would come there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised but should be baptized The Tradition proved true but not for their reason But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries and institutions and offices of Religion by Baptisms was used by the posterity of Noah or at least very early among the Jews besides the testimonies of their own Doctors I am the rather induced to believe because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion and they c thought Murther Incest Rapes and the worst of Crimes were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} intinctus a baptized person But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions that to baptize and to make disciples are all one and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether John's Baptism was from heaven or of men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from Heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implies also That such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by persons of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till John were but types and preparatory Baptisms and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies John's Baptism called them to believe in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand and Preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins His Baptism remitted no sins but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated the Disciples of Christ finished it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples as John did onely they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Jesus which it is not so likely John did a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms b of Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing In the Name of Iesus and at other times In the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his Resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority though with some difference of Mystery The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of John and by his Baptism and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led onely by outward things might be the better called in and easier inticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy He sublim'd it to higher ends and adorned it with stars of Heaven He made it to signifie greater mysteries to convey greater blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper then the skin and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transferr'd the Rite to greater mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practise was made to pass into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while he
Righteousness the garment of gladness vestment of Light or rather Light it self And for this reason it is that Baptism is not to be repeated because it does at once all that it can do at a hundred times for it admits us to the condition of Repentance and Evangelical Mercy to a state of pardon for our infirmities and sins which we timely and effectually leave and this is a thing that can be done but once as a man can begin but once he that hath once entred in at this gate of life is alwayes in possibility of pardon if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man that which he hath promised to the Son of God And this was expresly delivered and observed by S. Austin That which the Apostle sayes Cleansing him with the washing of water in the word is to be understood that in the same laver of regeneration and word of sanctification all the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed not onely the sins that are past which all are now remitted in Baptism but also those that are contracted afterwards by humane ignorance and infirmity Not that Baptism be repeated as often as we sin but because by this which is once administred is brought to pass that pardon of all sins not onely of those that are past but also those which will be committed afterwards is obtained The Messalians denyed this and it was part of their Heresie in the undervaluing of Baptism and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot in his third Book 195 Epistle to the Count Hermin whither I refer the Reader In proportion to this Doctrine it is that the holy Scripture calls upon us to live a holy life in pursuance of this grace of Baptism And S. Paul recals the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant and the grace of God stipulated in Baptism Ye are all children of God by faith in Iesus Christ that is heirs of the promise and Abrahams seed that promise which cannot be disannulled increased or diminished but is the same to us as it was to Abraham the same before the Law and after Therefore do not you hope to be justified by the Law for you are entred into the Covenant of Faith and are to be justified thereby This is all your hope by this you must stand for ever or you cannot stand at all but by this you may for you are Gods children by faith that is not by the Law or the Covenant of Works And that you may remember whence you are going and return again he proves that they are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ because they have been baptized into Christ and so put on Christ This makes you children and such as are to be saved by faith that is a Covenant not of Works but of Pardon in Jesus Christ the Author and Establisher of this Covenant For this is the Covenant made in Baptism That being justified by his grace we shall be heirs of life eternal for by grace that is by favor remission and forgiveness in Jesus Christ ye are saved This is the onely way that we have of being justified and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of heaven for besides this we have no hopes and all this is stipulated and consigned in Baptism and is of force after our fallings into sin and risings again In pursuance of this the same Apostle declares That the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of baptismal grace and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of or a contradiction to the state of Baptism we are then unpardonable because we are faln from our state of pardon This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrews This is the Covenant I will make in those days I will put my laws in their hearts and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin that is our sins are so pardoned that we need no more oblation we are then made partakers of the death of Christ which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist and representment But the great work is done in Baptism for so it follows Having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Iesus by a new and living way that is by the vail of his flesh his Incarnation But how do we enter into this Baptism is the door and the ground of this confidence for ever for so he addes Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water This is the consignation of this blessed state and the gate to all this mercy Let us therefore hold fast the profession of our faith that is the Religion of a Christian the faith into which we were baptized for that is the faith that justifies and saves vs Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this faith and do all the intermedial works in order to the conservation of it such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints the use of the word and Sacrament is included in the precept mutual Exhortation good Example and the like For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is if we sin against the profession of this faith and hold it not fast but let the faith and the profession go wilfully which afterwards he cals a treading under foot the Son of God a counting the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and a doing despite to the Spirit of Grace viz. which moved upon these waters and did illuminate him in Baptism if we do this there is no more sacrifice for sins no more deaths of Christ into which you may be baptized that is you are faln from the state of pardon and repentance into which you were admitted in Baptism and in which you continue so long as you have not quitted you baptismal Rights and the whole Covenant Contrary to this is that which S. Peter calls making our calling and election sure that is a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism and the grace of the Covenant And between these two states of absolute Apostasie from and intirely adhering to and securing this state of Calling and Election are all the intermedial sins and being overtaken in single faults or declining towards vitious habits which in their several proportions are degrees of danger and insecurity which S. Peter calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a forgetting our Baptism or purification from our sins And in this sense are those words The just shall live by faith that is by that profession which they made in Baptism from which if they swerve not they shall be supported in their spiritual life It is a grace which
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. John 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 holiness and is called by S. John {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 eternal And this is the Spirit of Sanctification the victory of the world the deletery of concupiscence the life of the soul and the perpetuall 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 righteousness put into us we are quitted from the dominion of sin and are planted together in the likeness of Christs Resurrection that henceforth we should not serve sin 4. But all these intermedial 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 S. Paul Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness 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 thorough 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 righteousness 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 brought 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 glarious 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 and bestowed in Baptism I shall less need to descend to temporal blessings or rare contingencies or miraculous events or probable notices of things less 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 paralytic 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 ministery 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 and end together But I insist not
on this though it seems to me hugely probable All these blessings put into one syllabus have given to Baptism many honorable 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 charet 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 coelestial 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 inquire 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 unless 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 Justin 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 unusual expression And the effect is attributed to this and denied to the other when they are distinguished So Justin Martyr affirms the onely Baptism that can heal us is Repentance and the knowledge 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 Alexandrinus 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 himself 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 Jerusalem Creed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins and by Justin 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 fide concordat qui natus fuerit saeculo renascatur spiritualitèr Deo Sic fit hominum Pater Deus sancta sit 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 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 spititual 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} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} being baptized we are illuminated
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 bless 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 years 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 temporal Promise and which we shall better understand from them whom the Spirit of God hath taught the mysteriousness 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 righteousness 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 temporal Promise which effect was forgiveness of sins a not imputing to us our infirmities Justification by faith accounting that for righteousness 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 believe 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 vertue 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 Jesus 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 saecular and Abraham the father of the faithful Gentiles as well as the circumcised Jews and the heir of the world not by himself 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 applied and did relate in Circumcision to the same they do belong and may be applied 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 by 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 do 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 do For our natural birth is either of it self 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 do 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 helpless 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 principle that in time will produce its proper
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 Righteousness 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 less and does no more do its work at all times then the soul does at all times understand Adde to this That if there be in Infants naturally an evil 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 sin of every man does witness too much why cannot Infants have a good principle in them though it works not till its own season as well as an evil principle If there were not by nature some evil 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 do all men choose to marry neither do all choose to abstain and in this instance there is a natural inclination 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 evil principle which operates when the childe can choose but is all the while within the soul either Infants have by grace a principle put into them or else sin abounds where grace does not superabound expresly 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 unless God had expresly forbidden them which cannot be pretended and that Infants are capable of the Spirit of grace I think is made very credible Christus infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes said Irenaeus Christ became an Infant among the Infants and does sanctifie 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 Royal 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 be 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 privilege beyond the children of Turks or Heathens unless 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 privilege 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
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 Vnless 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 nurture 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 Vt me collaudem si vivo carus amicis Causa fuit Pater his Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat quid multa pudicum Qui primus virtutis bonos servavit ab omni Non solùm facto verum opprobrio quoque turpi oh 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