partaking of his Resurrection the robe of Righteousness the garment of gladness the vestment of Light or rather Light it selfe And for this reason it is that Baptism is not to be repeated because it does at once all that it can doe 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 recalls the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant and the grace 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 doe 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 Authour 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 favour 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 falne from our state of pardon This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrewes 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 sinnes 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 boldnesse 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 doe 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 evill 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 us Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this faith and doe 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 hold it not fast but let the faith and the profession goe 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 despight 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 your 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
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
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