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A61901
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Of publick baptism a sermon / preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen at Guild-Hall Chapel, Sunday, Nov. 20, 1692 by Philip Stubs.
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Stubs, Philip, 1665-1738.
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1693
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Wing S6079; ESTC R28859
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17,720
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37
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with me I may be washed indeed with Water But how shall I be satisfied that Christ washes me with his Holy Spirit For the satisfying of which Objection I must proceed to the Second Thing I design'd to speak of viz. II. The Persons here authoriz'd to Baptize Whom if we look back to Ver. 16. of this Chapter we shall find to be the Apostles St. Matt. 28.16 Then the Eleven Disciples for so the Apostles are there call'd went away into Galilee into a Mountain where Jesus had appointed them Who when he came amongst them spake unto them saying All Power is given unto me in Heaven V. 18. and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations V. 19. baptizing them c. As if he had said My Father has left the Government of this World which I have redeemed with my Blood to me I have power to make what Covenants I please with Mankind I have told you upon what Conditions I will confer Heaven and Happiness upon Men Go ye therefore and let them all know it And I give you power and none but you to admit them into this my new Covenant by Baptism But then the Mercy of God as it was willing to extend the Benefits of his Passion beyond that Age of the World and that Generation of Men continu'd Means for the effectual Continuance of this Power of making such Covenants to the End of the World by authorizing the Apostles to delegate and depute their Power to others in this large and plenary Commission As my Father hath sent me S. Joh. 20 21. even so send I you I give you the same Authority which I have receiv'd And as I had Power of my Father to send you forth to preach the Gospel and baptize every Creature so I give you Power to send others forth with the same Commission to Ordain Bishops Priests and Deacons as you shall judge expedient for the Edifying and Welfare of my Church Which Power was accordingly delegated immediately afterwards to seven Persons at once Acts. 6.3 Chap. 13.3 as you 'll find in Acts 6. to Saul and Barnabas to their Successors until this very Period of Time wherein we of this Communion have Persons under the several Characters above-mention'd who derive their Authority from them by an uninterrupted Succession For no Man can take this Authority upon himself and unless there were Sacred Persons so continu'd in the Church there could at this Day be no Legal or Valid Administration of this Sacrament and by Consequence our Saviour's Command would have long since fell to the Ground which I tremble to think of when he bid them and in them their Successors Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. The Meaning of which Words All Nations or an Enquiry III. Into the Persons to be Baptiz'd is the Subject of my Third General which now offers it self to be spoke to Go ye therefore and teach All Nations baptizing them c. The Lord God had for a long time dwelt only in Judea Though the vast Circle of the Earth 2 Chron. 2.6 nor the larger Circumference of the Heavens cannot contain him yet as the Psalmist expresses it at Salem was his Tabernacle Psal 76.2 and his Dwelling at Sion There was his House there his peculiar Residence To the People of Israel only had he given his Laws and order'd the manner of his Worship The rest of the World seem'd over-look'd and neglected like Children dis-inherited and banish'd from their Father's Presence But when the Blessed Jesus the Word of God by whom all Men were created descended for the Redemption of them all he threw down the Partition-Wall which shut out the Gentiles from the Sight and Favour of God and contriv'd Means for the Bringing them into his Family He caus'd the Waters of Baptism to extend themselves as far as those of the Vniversal Deluge that as all Men had once perish'd by Water so they should all be saved by it Nor do we when we say All Men only upon slight Grounds exclude the Children of Believers from this extraordinary Privilege as do the Adversaries to Infant-Baptism Who should not have been mention'd in this place since their wild Opinion runs counter to the Belief and Practice of the Universal Church in all Ages did not some of them boast of an Irrefragable Argument on their Side taken from the very Words we are now about arguing from hence that because our Saviour first said Teach before he said Baptize therefore every Body must be taught before he is baptiz'd To which there need be given no other Answer but what the true Meaning of the Original Word will readily furnish us with For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek signifies not here Teach as in our Translation but rather make Disciples of Inter Judaeos Discipuli facti sunt ii non qui jam docti sunt sed ideo Discipuli facti sunt ut doceantur Lightfoot Hor. Heb. ad locum As if our Saviour alluding to a known Custom among the Jews had said Go and admit into my Church and make Disciples of all Nations and that by the Ceremony of Baptism for which is very remarkable in the very next Verse where the Word Teaching comes again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is another Word made use of in the Original which has that for its proper signification An Exposition which if it were duly attended to might be of no small Use to many unprejudic'd Anabaptists As IV. The Form of Baptism here prescribed in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost might be so to another sort of seemingly more Rational Persons who yet some of them make a Difficulty in Founding the Doctrine of the Individual and Ever Blessed Trinity upon express Words of Scripture For if the being baptiz'd into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as the Original imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not in the Name according to our Translation which is less significant If I say V. Grot. sup loc the being baptiz'd into those Names doth not signifie the being baptiz'd into the Belief of Three Persons in one Incomprehensible Godhead which distinguishes the Christian Baptism from all others and the submitting all the Faculties of our Souls and Bodies to the Soveraign Dominion and Guidance of each of them as such then the whole Church almost has been in an Error for nigh these 1700 Years and a Handful of Men whose Business it is now-a-days to receive old condemn'd Heresies are alone in the Right Thus have I briefly gone through the Four first Particulars which relate to the Essentials of Baptism To all and singular of which every one in our Communion is so ready to subscribe against all Anabaptists Socinians and other Vnorthodox Persons whatever that few would forgive themselves should their Children by any means happen to be otherwise baptized than
In the Office for Private Baptism Rubrick 3d. The Curates of every Parish shall often admonish their Parishioners that without great Cause and Necessity they procure not their Children to be baptiz'd at home in their Houses Our Church is so indulgent a Mother that she permits any to be baptiz'd in Private when there is a Necessity for it agreeably to the Practice of the Universal Church all along and accordingly hath provided a particular Form for such Exigencies Rubrick 5th in the Office for Private Bapt. But this still with an Injunction That afterwards they be brought to Church that those Prayers and Rites which before were omitted in the Office may be there publickly supplied This is the Sence of our Church in this Matter and her Determination and therefore sufficient as has been prov'd to oblige every True Son of hers to acquiesce therein and be conformable But I have yet farther to urge That whosoever will be stubborn and run counter to these Establishments of hers by Christ'ning his Children at home and that by the Publick Form which is still insisted upon must not only be reckon'd guilty of manifest Disobedience to his Mother but is chargeable likewise with several gross Absurdities in one of the solemnest of God's holy Ordinances the Publick Form being so contriv'd to prevent Evasion or Collusion herein that it cannot properly be us'd any where but in the Church Mr. Arwaker 's Ministration of Publick Baptism of Infants to be used in the Ch. as has been well observ'd in a late Treatise on this Argument to which hardly any thing can be added on this Head For 1. For instance as the Author observes Pag. 29 c. When the Minister says thus to the Godfathers and Godmothers You have brought this Child here to be baptiz'd Ivo Carnotens Serm. de Sacrament Dedicat according to that of one of the Ancients You were brought to Church in the Arms of your Sureties he ought in a Private House to invert the Words thus Ye have brought me here to baptize this Child 2. How can any Minister use that Petition in the last Collect before the Prayer of Consecration in such a place with any colour of Reason when he is thus to address himself to God Almighty Grant that whosoever is here dedicated unto thee by our Office and Ministry may be endued c. whilst by Here is undoubtedly meant the Font in the Church or the Church it self the proper place of Dedication at least 1 Sam. 1.24 Hannah was of that Opinion when she offer'd her Samuel the Son of her Prayers in the House of the Lord with a Design of Dedicating him there to his Service 3. In the Prayer of Consecration it self it is no small Argument to prevail for God's Assent to the Petitions offer'd in the behalf of the Child to be Regenerated That he would regard the Prayers of his Congregation and comply therewith in Sanctifying the Water to the Mystical Washing away of Sin c. Now this Congregation whose Prayers are thought thus efficacious ought to be such an one Pag. 31 as the above-cited Author observes of which the Minister may safely and truly say Thy Congregation for there is certainly the greatest Validity in the Prayers of God's Congregation But there is great Reason to think that those are not such which are gather'd in a private House on such an Account since the Church has not appointed it a fit place for Baptism unless as was abovesaid in Cases of extream Necessity So that Private Houses being not ordinarily allow'd much less commanded to be made use of as such nay oftentimes perversely appropriated by some to that Use against the express Authority of the Church and earnest Sollicitation of those that are set over them whoever assemble there in such an illegal manner Vid. Bals Zon. apud Beveregium Tom. 1. p. 191. ad Can. 31. Concil 6. in Trullo St. Matth. 18.20 must be thought as really guilty of a Disorder in the Church as those who meet in prohibited Numbers and Places are of a Riot in the State Nor will that pitiful Plea from our Saviour's ignorantly misapply'd Promise Where Two or Three are gather'd together in my Name there am I in the midst of them stand them in any stead Since we must not be allow'd to argue from extraordinary to ordinary and common Cases for though not a Tittle of our Saviour's Words shall fall to the Ground but he will be with his all the World over till the Consummation of all things yet this Text must be understood of them as duly circumstantiated with respect to Time Place c. Hence the Reason of no Considering Person will give him leave to say Because our Saviour supported his Disciples with these Words whom he foresaw Drooping ere-long under a Persecuted Condition therefore they may make use of it upon every Caprichio as too many among our Laity actually do in the more flourishing State of the Church against the known Orders of the Establishment in it to which in many the like Cases they readily submit upon those very Motives which are usually urg'd for their Obedience to this Injunction But 4. The last Absurdity committed in using our Publick Form at Home is the Receiving the Child When the Minister having first Nam'd it and Baptiz'd it holding it still in his Hand uses these Words of Admission We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christ's Flock c. Which Reception doth not only mean into the whole Body of the Vniversal Church but as well that Representative Part then present and Consenting to it for the Whole And the Minister's Embracing the Child is for the same End as the Imposition of Hands in Baptism was of Old which Durantus tells us De Rit Eccl. Cath. Lib. 19. cap. 1. signified the Reconciliation by which he that was without the Church a Child of Wrath according to our Catechism was in the Church receiv'd into the Church's Favour and made a Child of Grace Thus have I laid before you the Commands of our Church with relation to Publick Baptism together with the Danger and Absurdity of our Breach of them which was the First Particular I hasten through the following Ones with all imaginable Brevity and proceed to shew 2. That She has done nothing herein but upon very extraordinary Motives in that her Thoughts with respect to the Business in hand accord with the Eastern and all the Western Churches now in the World As for the Eastern Chap. 7. Sir Paul Ricaut in his Present State of the Greek Church tells us That That hath from long Antiquity practis'd on the Eighth Day to present their Children at the Church-Porch to receive the Blessing of the Priest c. And 't is notoriously known that the Practice of the Church of Rome here in the West is agreeable to her Constitutions Vid. Rituale jussu Pauli 5. Colon. Edit Cum