Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	baptize_v	eunuch_n	philip_n	3,839	5	10.4025	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47755	A religious conference between a minister and parishioner: concerning the practice of our orthodox Church of England in baptizing infants, and pouring water on their faces, or sprinkling them; and in confirming them by the bishop when they come of age to give an account of their faith. Proving all three lawful by the authority of the Holy Scriptures.	Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.	1696 (1696)	Wing L1145; ESTC R213965	23,437	34

A Religious Conference Between a Minister and Parishioner Concerning the Practice of Our Orthodox Church of England IN BAPTIZING INFANTS AND Pouring Water on their Faces or Sprinkling them and in Confirming them by the Bishop when they come of Age to give an Account of their Faith Proving all three lawful by the Authority of the Holy Scriptures Ezech. 3.17 Son of Man I have made thee a Watchman unto the House of Israel therefore hear the Word at my Mouth and give them warning from me LONDON Printed for A. and J. Churchil and sold by John Pearce Bookseller in Exon 1696. A Religious Conference Between a Minister and Parishioner c. Parishioner GOOD morrow to you Sir I wish you Health of Body which as I remember you heretofore often wanted Minister The God of Heaven bless you Sir and give you Health of Soul and grant you may never want that P. This spiritual Health is somewhat impair'd since your Departure from us M. I am heartily sorry for that and wish I cou'd restore it but hope you have so much Charity for me as to believe I wou'd gladly have officiated still among you if I cou'd have done it without sinning against my own Conscience P. You have studyed that Point better than I and if you are satisfied I have no reason to object against it M. I thank God I am easie and quiet in my own Mind and that is a continual Feast P. I believe so by your Countenance because you look better than ever but I have often wish'd my self and this Parish under your Ministry again it might have been a means under God to have kept some of us from falling from the Church into divers Errors and particularly that of opposing Infant Baptism M. I am mightily concern'd to hear such Opposers of truth do increase in these Parts P. So am I to see it and to tell you that one of your Flock who was a constant Attendant on your publick Prayers Preaching and Holy Sacrament has been lately dipt by them and others I fear are like to follow M. This grieves my very Soul the good God put a Stop to this spreading Contagion P. And pray Sir lend your helping Hand to cure it M. I shall readily and freely do it by satisfying your Doubts or answering any puzzling Questions you shall propose about it P. I kindly thank you Sir and without any more ado shall begin with my first Question which is to inform me what Baptism is Because the Stress of this Controversie lies in understanding the Meaning and Signification of it M. The Word Baptize is us'd in Scripture to signifie sometimes the dipping the whole Body in Water sometimes the wetting washing or sprinkling some Part thereof with Water P. How do you prove this latter Signification of the Word Baptism M. From four several Places of Scripture as Luke 11.38 where 't is said in the Greek our Saviour was not baptiz'd because he had not wash'd his Hands before Dinner and the Pharisee marvelled at it that he himself not his Hands was not baptiz'd and Mar. 10.39 where our Lord calls his Sufferings on the Cross a Baptism because he was wet and sprinkled with the Blood and Water which issued out of his wounded Heart and Act. 1.5 where the Disciples are promised to be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many Days hence because the Holy Ghost was shortly to be shed or poured forth on the Disciples Heads and into their Hearts somewhat after the manner of our pouring forth Water and sprinkling in Baptism which was prophecy'd by Joel cap. 2.28 29. and came to pass on the Day of Pentecost Act. 2.17 33. and 1 Cor. 10.2 where St. Paul says the Israelites in their Passage from Egypt to Caanan were all baptized in the Cloud because they were all sprinkled with the Rain which fell from it as is further evident from Psal 77.17 the Clouds poured out Water i. e. on the Children of Israel as they marched thro' the Red Sea to which the foregoing and following Verses of that Psalm prove that it must have Reference P. May Baptism then be administred by sprinkling or pouring Water on the Face of the baptized Person as well as by dipping him M. Yes it may for the Reasons before expressed because Christ who was wet and sprinkled with Blood and Water in some Part of his Body on the Cross and his Apostles who had the Holy Ghost poured forth and as it were sprinkled upon them and the Israelites who in their Passage thro' the Red Sea were sprinkled only with Water for all that way they walked on dry Ground Exod 14.22 these are all nevertheless said to be baptized P. But was not Christ and the Eunuch dipt under Water when they were baptized because they both went down into the Water and came up out of it M. It does not necessarily follow from those Expressions that the Baptism of either was by dipping since John Baptist and Philip went down into the Water and came up out of it as well as Christ and the Eunuch and yet none do thence infer the two former were dipt P. But they urge farther and I have often heard it from them that Place of Joh. 3.23 John was baptizing in Enon near Salim for there was much water there whence they conclude he dipt his Proselytes or else why is that reason given there Why did he repair to a River for Baptism M. The reason why John baptized in Enon as well as Jordan might be and in all Probability was because of the great Multitudes that resorted to him for Baptism Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the Region round about Jordan Mat. 3.5 and to be continually drawing and carrying Water for the baptizing so many thousand People wou'd have been an endless Work and therefore a River was the most convenient Place for John's Baptism there being then too no Baptisteries in Churches erected and allowed for that purpose and the saying there was much Water there does no more prove that John dipt his Disciples than the Eunuchs saying to Philip see here is Water what does hinder me to be baptized Act. 8.36 does prove that he was only sprinkled because the Eunuch makes Water and not the Muchness or Littleness of it to be the Reason why Philip shou'd baptize him there 2ly If John had dipt his Proselytes this is no Proof that we must do so too because his Baptism if it was the same for Substance with Christs yet was administred in a different manner and not in that Form of Words Christ's was not in the Name of the Father of of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and for this we have the Confession of * Mr. Blackwood's storming of Antichrist pag. 13. part 2. one of their own Party that John did not baptize in the Name of the Holy Trinity as Christ did which he proves from Act. 2.3 4 5. where those twelve Disciples because they had not been baptized in the

Name of the Holy Ghost altho' baptiz'd before into John's Baptism were all baptiz'd again by St. Paul and if John's Baptism differ'd from ours in some Circumstances why may not ours differ from his in this one of sprinkling and we lawfully use it tho' John did dipping especially since there is nothing in Christ's Command which requires us to observe the one more than the other but he leaves the Minister at liberty as our Church does either to dip or sprinkle according to the Strength or Weakness of the Party that is to be baptized and either way if he does it with Water and in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost he does administer true Christian Baptism P. I think this a sufficient Answer to that Objection from John and wonder these Men insist so much upon dipping in Baptism as to make the Ordinance void without it when they can never prove this to be essential to Baptism from any Place of Scripture but only by conjectural Consequences and Deductions from it M. I do not wonder at this at all since none are more confident than those that are most ignorant as deep Rivers run silently on but shallow Streams make a Noise and thus Mountebanks will undertake Cures which the ablest Physitians look on as desperate but they seldom stay long in a Place and more seldom cure People of any Disease but their Folly P. But I hope I shall have more Wit than to be cheated by Mountebanks in Physick and more Grace than to be deceiv'd by Mountebanks in Religion M. Pray take care of both but more especially the latter since to try Practices on the Soul is far more dangerous than to tamper with the Body P. I thank you for your good Advice and by God's Help shall be careful to follow it But to return to our former Discourse pray Sir who are the proper Subjects of Baptism which you have prov'd may be administred by sprinkling or dipping M. Not only all Believers but also all their Children P. How do you prove that Believers Children may lawfully be baptiz'd M. From several Texts of Scripture which by good and undeniable Consequence imply so much P. Pray Sir name some of those Texts that I may have them in readiness to defend our Church's Practice in baptizing Infants M. I shall the first is a Place already quoted to prove the Lawfulness of sprinkling 1 Cor. 10.2 where the Apostle says the Israelites were all baptiz'd into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea which imports as all Expositors will allow even those that oppose the Consequence we draw from it that the Jews Passage thro' the Red Sea was a Mr. Keach's Gold refin'd p. 62. Type of our Christian Baptism and if so it was in the Type that Men Women and Children passed thro' the red Sea it ought to be so in the thing typifi'd and then the Children of believing Parents as well as they themselves may and ought to be baptiz'd P. But did not the Jews Cattle and many Unbelievers pass thro' the Red Sea with them And were they baptiz'd too This seems absurd M. And so does your Question the Scripture being silent and saying nothing about Cattle and Unbelievers which went with Israel thro' the Red Sea and if both of them did how cou'd they be baptized into Moses i. e. into his Doctrin and Law which the Cattle cou'd not and the Unbelievers wou'd not understand and obey and therefore the mixt Multitude spoken of Ex. 12.38 who went up from Egypt were all the Jewish Proselytes as well as the Jews themselves their Wives and Children comprehended under the general Name of Fathers in the former Verse 1 Cor. 10.1 These were the All that were baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea P. Where is your next Scripture Proof M. It is Col. 2.11 12. where the same Apostle calls Baptism a Circumcision made without Hands and says the Colossians were circumcised by it which implies that Circumcision comes in the room of Baptism as our Saviour's calling the Lord's Supper the Passover is an Argument it was instituted instead thereof Luk. 22.15 P. But here they object that if Baptism comes in the room of Circumcision then Males must be only baptized as Males of old were only circumcised M. To this I answer 1. That Baptism does not succeed Circumcision as the Antitype does the Type or the Substance does the Shadow but as one positive Institution succeeds another and both seal the same spiritual Mercies that to the Jews and this to the Christians and therefore if Baptism is administred to other Subjects viz. Females who are more capable thereof than they were of Circumcision this is no Argument that the one does not come in the room of the other but rather that God's Mercies are more enlarged to us than to them as the Seal thereof which is Baptism is extended and applied farther than their Circumcision was 2. I say that the Jewish Females were vertually circumcis'd in the Males and for that reason the whole Jewish Church and Nation are call'd in Scripture by the Name of Circumcision Act. 10.45 cap. 11.2 Gal. 2.9 and Phil. 3.3 P. But they have a Salvo for this that the Jewish People are call'd the Circumcision from the greater part who were circumcis'd as the Cattle of Egypt are said to have dy'd Ex. 9.6 and yet there was Cattle left ver 19 25. M. But this will not serve the turn for how does it appear that the Jews Males were more in Number than their Females Their Number might be equal or they might have more Women than Men for any thing can be prov'd to the contrary but to put this matter out of doubt that the Jews were not call'd the Circumcision from the greater or better Part of them that were circumcis'd is plain from Ex. 12.48 where no uncircumcis'd Person was to eat of the Passover and yet the Jewish Women did constantly partake thereof and were never reprov'd by Moses or any of the Prophets for it and therefore in God's Esteem the Jewish Women must be vertually circumcised in the Men or else they cou'd not have been admitted to the Lord 's Passover P. This is a convincing Argument and proves that Males and Females among the Jews in respect of the Covenant of Circumcision were like Man and Wife but one Flesh and I cannot imagine what they will say to it but they have something to offer from that place of St. Paul for Dipping that he calls our Spiritual Circumcision a being buried with Christ in Baptism which they say is an Argument against Sprinkling and for Dipping M. To this I Answer 1. This passage cannot be taken according to the Letter that the Colossians were cover'd all over with Water in Baptism as Christ was cover'd with Earth at his Burial who had no Earth at all upon him being laid in a Sepulchre of hewn Stone and they must have continued Three