which was apply'd to new-born Infants and to represent alike washing away of natural pollutions One other particular there is wherein I have said the Water of Baptism to have been intended as a sign and that is in respect of that manner of application which was sometime us'd I mean the dipping or plunging the party baptized in it A signification which S. Paul will not suffer those to forget who have been acquainted with his Epistles For with reference to that manner of Baptizing we find him affirming (m) Rom. 6.4 that we are buried with Christ by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life And again (n) Rom. 6.5 that if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection To the same purpose or rather yet more clearly doth that Apostle discourse where he tells us (o) Col. 2.12 that as we are buried with Christ in Baptism so we do therein rise also with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the Dead For what is this but to say that as the design of Baptism was to oblige Men to conform so far to Christ's Death and Resurrection as to die unto Sin and live again unto Righteousness so it was perform'd by the ceremony of immersion that the person immersd might by that very ceremony which was no obscure image of a Sepulture be minded of the preceden death as in like manner by his comming again out of the Water of his rising from that death to life after the example of the Instituter thereof For which cause as hath been elsewhere (p) Expl. of the Creed in the words Aud Buried observ'd the Antient Church added to the Rite of immersion the dipping of the party three several times to represent the three days Christ continued in the Grave for that we find to have been the intention of some and made the Eve of Easter one of the solemn times of the Administration of it 3. The third thing to be enquir'd concerning the outward visible sign of Baptism is how it ought to be apply'd where again these two things would be considered First whether it ought to be applyed by an immersion or by that or an aspersion or effusion Secondly whether it ought to be applyed by a threefold immersion or aspersion answerably to the names into which we are baptiz'd or either by that or a single one The former of these is it may be a more material question than it is commonly deem'd by us who have been accustomed to baptize by a bare effusion or sprinkling of water upon the party For in things which depend for their force upon the meer will and pleasure of him who instituted them there ought no doubt great regard to be had to the commands of him who did so As without which there is no reason to presume we shall receive the benefit of that ceremony to which he hath been pleased to annex it Now what the command of Christ was in this particular cannot well be doubted of by those who shall consider first the words of Christ (q) Matt. 28. â—9 concerning it and the practice of those times whether in the Baptism of John or of our Saviour For the words of Christ are that they should Baptize or Dip those whom they made Disciples to him for so no doubt the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies and which is more and not without its weight that they should baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Thereby intimating such a washing as should receive the party baptized within the very body of that Water which they were to baptize him with Though if there could be any doubt concerning the signification of the words in themselves yet would that doubt be remov'd by considering the practice of those times whether in the Baptism of John or of our Saviour For such as was the practice of those times in Baptizing such in reason are we to think our Saviour's command to have been concerning it especially when the words themselves incline that way There being not otherwise any means either for those or future times to discover his intention concerning it Now what the practice of those times was as to this particular will need no other proof than their resorting to Rivers and other such like receptacles of waters for the performance of that ceremony as that too because there was much Water there For so the Scripture doth not only affirm concerning the Baptism of John (r) Matt. 3.5 6.13 John 3.23 but both intimate concerning that which our Saviour administred in Judaea because making John's Baptism and his to be so far forth of the same sort (Å¿) Joh. 3.22 23. and expresly affirm concerning the Baptism of the Eunuch which is the only Christian Baptism the Scripture is any thing particular in the description of The words of S. Luke (t) Act. 8.38 being that both Philip and the Eunuch went down into a certain water which they met with in their journey in order to the baptizing of the latter For what need would there have been either of the Baptist's resorting to great confluxes of Water or of Philip and the Eunuch's going down into this were it not that the Baptism both of the one and the other was to be performed by an immersion A very little Water as we know it doth with us sufficing for an effusion or sprinkling But beside the words of our Blessed Saviour and the concurrent practice of those times wherein this Sacrament was instituted It is in my opinion of no less consideration that the thing signified by the Sacrament of Baptism cannot otherwise be well represented than by an immersion or at least by some more general way of purification than that of effusion or sprinkling For though the pouring or sprinkling of a little Water upon the Face may suffice to represent an internal washing which seems to be the general end of Christ's making use of the Sacrament of Baptism yet can it not be thought to represent such an entire washing as that of new-born Infants was and as Baptism may seem to have been intended for because represented as the laver (u) Tit. 3.5 of our regeneration That though it do require an immersion yet requiring such a general washing at least as may extend to the whole Body As other than which cannot answer its type nor yet that general though internal purgation which Baptism was intended to represent The same is to be said yet more upon the account of our conforming to the Death and Resurrection of Christ which we learn from S. Paul to have been the design of Baptism to signifie For though that might and was well enough represented by the baptized persons being
the Sacrament or our Saviour had professed to prescribe or direct the whole form of the Administration of it But as it is notorious enough that the Church of England doth not represent the sign of the Cross as pertaining to the Essence of the Sacrament because administring it after Baptism first given yea after the mention of the Minister's receiving the baptized person into the Congregation of Christ's flock So our Saviour is so far from prescribing the whole external form of its Administration that he hath left us to the general tenour of his Doctrine and the directions of our own reason even for those things that are more material yea for such as are directed (u) See the Directory in the Administration of Baptism by those very Men who cry out against us for adding to Christ's Institution For where I beseech you is there any prescription of other words concerning Baptism than what is imply'd in that short belief into which he commands to Baptize Where to admonish all that are present to look back to their own Baptism and to repent of the violations of the Covenant they made with God in it Where any directions for requiring the Parent of the Child to bring him up in the nurture of the Lord yea to require the Parents solemn promise for the performance of it Nay where which is of all others the most material any Prayer to Almighty God for the sanctifying of the Water he is going to make use of and which I no way doubt is necessary to the Consecration of it All that the Institution of Baptism represents to us being the baptizing those that offer themselves to it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Now if our Saviour hath not professed to prescribe even as to the things before directed but left Men to the general conduct of his Doctrine and the guidance of their own reason What appearance is there as to his prescribing after what external form and order all these things were to be done and which if he hath not there is no doubt the Governours of the Church may order as they shall see fit yea do so without any fear of being thought to charge his Institutions with imperfection They being not to be thought to do so who prescribe rules concerning those things which the Institutions of Christ profess not to give perfect directions in The only thing which hath occasion'd Men's misapprehensions first and then their passing so severe a Censure upon humane prescriptions in this kind is an hasty opinion they have taken up of Christ's being as particular in directing the external management of sacred Duties as Moses appears to have been as to the services of the Law. For which yet they have had no other pretence than a misapplied Text of the Author to the Hebrews (w) Heb. 3.2 even Christ's being as faithful in that house of God which was committed to his charge as Moses was in his But beside that there appear not any such particular directions from God to our Saviour as there were sometime given to Moses and our Saviour therefore not to be look'd upon as unfaithful for not reaching out such particular directions to us Besides that if our Saviour did not furnish such particular directions yet he hath furnished his Church with a far greater portion of his Spirit and which may serve to it as a guide to fit those Services for its respective members Beside lastly that the Services he enjoyn'd because to be exercised among people of several Nations and humours were not capable as to circumstances of such strict limitations as that which was to be exercised in one single Nation only There is nothing more evident to those that read the Scriptures than that Christ hath given no such particular directions and all Arguments from Christ's fidelity therefore of no more avail in this affair than those which the Papists are wont to draw from the wisdom and goodness of God toward the proving of an Infallible Guide For as no wise Man will be perswaded by such Arguments against the Testimony of his own senses which assure him of the errours of those whom they would have to be Infallible So no considering Man will be perswaded by the other into a belief of those particular directions which are not any where to be seen nor which they themselves who maintain those directions have yet been able to shew For when they have said all they can toward the evincing of their Conclusion the utmost they are able to prove is that Christ hath given some general directions concerning the Administration of religious Offices and which as it doth not prejudge the giving of more particular ones so doth much less make them to reflect any imperfection upon the Institution of Christ because pretending not to concern it self about them One other Charge there is which is more peculiar to the sign of the Cross and that is its being a relique of Popery or giving too much countenance to the Papists abuses of it But as they who advance the former of these make Popery much more Antient than it is for the advantage of Protestantism to allow It being certain from Tertullian (x) De Coronâ— cap. 3. that this Ceremony was in use in his time in almost all the actions they set about So our Church hath taken care to prevent in its own Members all misapplications of it or the giving the least encouragement to those that are made of it by others Partly by confining the use of it to the Administration of Baptism and partly by representing it as only a token of Men's being not ashamed to own the Faith and reproaches of him who suffered upon it Which is certainly a more proper course to discountenance Popery than it can be thought to be to remove the use of it altogether Because at the same time we disavow the errors of that we shew by our Practice our allowance of the Ceremony it self and together therewith our accordance with the Primitive Church which is the only plausible thing the Papists have to boulster up their own cause or reproach us with the neglect of A DIGRESSION Concerning ORIGINAL SIN By way of PREPARATION TO THE Following Discourses The Contents Of the ground of the present Digression concerning Original Sin and enquiry thereupon made what Original Sin is Which is shewn in the General to be such a corruption of the Nature of every Man that is naturally engendered of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil The nature of that corruption more particularly enquir'd into and shewn by probable Arguments to be no other than a Privation of a Supernatural Grace That there is such a thing as we have before described evidenced at large from the Scripture and that evidence farther strengthned by the experience we have of its effects and the
worst of sins the greatest actual sinner cannot deserve more punishment than he who offends in a far less degree Because all demerit ariseth from the pravity of the will which is not more or less for the meer absence or presence of God's restraining Grace So the greatest actual sinner cannot become obnoxious to punishment upon the score of any other Corruption than that of Nature That as it makes all his actual sins to be necessary and therefore in reason to bear the whole blame and punishment so receiving no new aggravation from the want of that restraining Grace which might have withheld the party from them in as much as that want if it be a fault is no less the result of his natural corruption than his actual offences are But therefore also as we cannot look upon natural corruption as determining Men to all their actual errours without taking away all diversity between the demerits of natural Men yea making natural Corruption the only proper ground of their punishment so they who do so will be found to contradict the declarations of the Scripture as well as the allowed practice of the World. For why if there be no difference between the demerits of natural Men should those that are in Authority mete out different punishments to them according to the different degrees or kinds of those offences which they commit Nay why should the Scripture affirm that it shall be more tolerable for some sinners (b) Matt. 11.22 24. than for others at the great day of judgment That as it is a judgment of righteousness so being consequently to mete out equal punishments to all sinners if there be but an equality in their demerits Again if natural Corruption be upon the matter the only proper ground of punishment as it must of necessity be if it be the unavoidable cause of actual sins How comes the Scripture to declare that God will reward every Man according to his works (c) Rom. 2.6 yea the wicked (d) Rom. 2.8 according to his works as well as the righteous according to theirs For if natural Corruption be the only proper ground of punishment the works of Men in propriety of Speech can have no concernment in it and much less as the Scripture declares be the principal object of judgment and therefore of that punishment which it shall award The utmost in my opinion that can be said in this particular is that as Men by the Corruption of their Nature are averse from every thing that is good so that averseness will indispose those in whom that Corruption abides to all good actions whatsoever and infallibly take them off from them where either some work of God upon their minds doth not thrust them on to them or the comeliness or profitableness thereof shall not more strongly impel them to the practice of them The former whereof will make the consent of such persons even to those good actions which they perform incomplete and imperfect and indeed a consent to them rather as expedient than good whence it is that our Church (e) Art. 13. represents them as having the nature of sins The latter cause them to neglect all such as are not in a manner thrust upon them by God or have not one of the former motives to incite them to the practice of them yea present to their minds when they ought to make use of them Which will occasion such persons for the most part to neglect all good actions where there is not place for serious thoughts as in cases of surprise or where they have not been habituated to the practice of vertue or to the consideration of the comeliness or profitableness thereof But as where there is place for serious thoughts there may be place also for the former motives to impel Men to the practice of that from which they are otherwise sufficiently averse So it is not unlikely that the minds of those who have been before habituated to the practice or contemplation of Vertue may be thrust on by the former motives to pursue many things that are good yea acquit themselves singularly in them Of which yet if any doubt be made we have the laudable example of several Heathens to convince us thereof and who because Heathen cannot be supposed to be free from the power of natural Corruption or to be thrust on by other motives than the former to the doing of such actions from which they are naturally so averse In like manner As Men by the Corruption of their Nature are inclin'd to every thing that is evil as well as averse from every thing that is good So that inclination will dispose those in whom it is to an allowance of all evil actions and infallibly betray them into them where God's restraining Grace doth not withhold them or the indecency or dangerous consequences of the other do not alike keep them back The former whereof will make their abstaining even from those evil actions which they avoid to be but an imperfect abstinence from them and indeed an abstinence from them rather as inexpedient than evil The latter cause them to fall into all such from which they are not restrain'd by God or by a present and intense consideration of the indecency or danger of them Which will occasion such persons for the most part to fall into all evil actions where there is not room for serious thoughts as in cases of surprise or where they have not been habituated to the avoiding of vice or the consideration of the indecency or dangerousness thereof But as where there is room for serious thoughts there may also be place for the former reasons to take them off from the practice of that to which they are otherwise sufficiently inclin'd So it is not unlikely that the minds of those who have been before habituated to the avoiding of Vice or the consideration of the indecency or dangerousness thereof may be taken off by the former reasons from the pursuit of evil things yea acquit themselves singularly in it As is farther evident from the resistance that hath been made by several Heathens to all the temptations of sin and who because Heathen cannot be suppos'd either to have been free from natural Corruption or to have been taken off by other means than the former from the doing of those evil actions to which they were so strongly inclin'd But because what we have hitherto said concerning the Corruption of our Nature doth rather tend to shew what effects it hath upon us than what that Corruption is And because that word whereby we have chosen to express it is but a Metaphorical one and will therefore serve yet less clearly to declare the thing intended by it Therefore it may seem but reasonable to enquire yet farther what it is and wherein it doth consist as without which we shall discourse but imperfectly concerning it Now as that question cannot otherwise be solv'd than by the knowledge of that Estate of
forsake it and pay a more perfect submission to that Authority and goodness of God which he hath before so shamefully violated I reckon thirdly as a thing to which sorrow for sin doth equally dispose us a present forsaking of those sins which we are under a temptation to commit as well as a resolution to do so for the time to come There being the same force in a due sorrow for sin to dispose men to that as there is to a resolution of afterward forsaking it For which cause the Antient Church did not only refuse such persons Baptism as were of any unlawful Profession (h) Introd concern Catech c. till they actually abandon'd it but made proof (i) Ibid. also for a considerable time of the resolutions of others and till they had given her such proofs did not admit them to it They finding no doubt by manifold experience that many that offer'd themselves to Baptism made little Conscience afterward of avoiding those sins which they had before so solemnly resolv'd against and made publick profession of abandoning And though it do not appear that the Apostles themselves took this course they baptizing men immediately upon the bare profession of their Repentance and a resolution afterward to bring forth fruits meet for it Yet as the reason of that possibly might be either because of that exuberance of Grace which was then bestow'd upon their new Converts or because by means of their Ambulatory life they could not well deferr the Baptism of those that offer'd themselves till they had made some considerable trial of them which will exempt such Churches from their example where there is no such exuberance of Grace and where moreover they have setled Pastors to intend the affairs of them So we cannot think the Apostles would have ever given Baptism to such persons as should before that Baptism of theirs have fallen into those sins which they erewhile made profession of abandoning Sorrow for sin where it is hearty and real no doubt disposing men as well to a present forsaking of it as it doth to a resolution concerning it Which will make the Repentance pre-required to Baptism to be as our Catechism expresseth it a Repentance whereby as occasion offers we actually forsake sin as well as resolve for the future to abandon it An account being thus given of the first thing pre-requir'd to Baptism and our Churches definition of it both explain'd and established Pass we on to that which is alike pre-required to it even that Faith whereby we stedfastly believe the promises made to us in that Sacrament Where again I will enquire I. What those promises are which we are so to believe II. What that belief of them doth pre-suppose III. What is meant by a stedfast belief of those promises IV. What evidence there is of that being the Faith or belief which is pre-requir'd by Christianity to the receiving of that Sacrament I. Now though that Catechism which I have chosen to explain give no other account of those Promises than that they are such as are made to us in that Sacrament Yet is it not difficult to collect from thence and from what is before said concerning the Parts of a Sacrament that the Catechism means no other promises than those which make a tender of its inward and spiritual Graces For a Sacrament being before divided into an outward and visible sign and an inward and spiritual Grace as the only proper parts of it And the outward and visible sign being in like manner represented in it as no farther of value than as conducing to possess us of the other No other promises can be suppos'd to be intended here than such as make a tender of those inward and spiritual Graces as which indeed are the only things considerable in it Which will consequently make the promises here intended to be those which make a tender for the present of remisssion of sins and sanctification and in the end of everlasting life II. Those therefore being the promises which are to be the object of the Catechumens Faith and which accordingly he is stedfastly to believe It will not be difficult to shew what that belief of them pre-supposeth which is the second thing to be enquir'd into For that belief of them must at least pre-suppose a belief of all that which is necessary to bring us to the belief of the other More particularly it pre-supposeth as to our selves that we believe our selves to be naturally under a state of sin and death as without which there could be no place for that sanctification and remission which is promised in Baptism And that we are yet farther off from any title to Everlasting life as which if we had there would have been no need of a Promise in Baptism of it It presupposeth again as to Christ in whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen a like stedfast belief that there was such a person as Jesus Christ and that he was appointed by God to convey such graces to us That agreeably to the predictions of the Scripture and the will of God concerning him he took upon him our nature and suffer'd in it to purchase those Graces and that he ever since intends the exhibiting of what he hath so purchas'd The belief of these and the like Articles of our Faith being as manifestly presuppos'd to the belief of those Promises which in this place we are required to intend III. That which will it may be more concern us to enquire is what our Catechism means by a stedfast belief of them For my more orderly resolution whereof I will enquire first what it means by belief and then by a stedfast one Now by belief may be meant either a simple assent of the mind and in which sense there is no doubt it is oftentimes taken in Christian Writers Or there may be meant also a belief with affiance and such as beside the assent of the mind or understanding to them doth also connote a trust in them or in God because of them By vertue of which as I have elsewhere discours'd (k) Expl. of the Decal Com. 1. Part 3. concerning the grace of trust the heart or will is prompted to desire as well as assent to the matter of the divine promises and acquiesce in those for the obtaining of it And indeed if we may judge any thing by our Homilies to which the Articles (l) Art. 11. of our Church do also particularly referr us in the point of justifying Faith this latter belief must be here intended Because a belief which hath for its end the remission of sins in Baptism and consequently a justifying one For the right and true Christian Faith saith one of our (m) Homily of Salvation Part 3. Homilies is not only to believe that the Holy Scripture and all the forecited Articles of our Faith are true but also to have a sure trust and confidence in God's merciful promises to be
blessings and the means that was intended to exhibit them among us as the posterity of Abraham did their Children to the like blessings and that means which among them was intended for the exhibition of them II. The Baptism of Infants being thus made out from the Scripture and by such passages thereof also as cannot be easily avoided Pass we on to enquire what countenance it hath from Antiquity as which if it be any thing considerable will the more firmly establish it Where the first that I shall take notice of is a passage of Justin Martyr I do not mean what is commonly quoted out of his Questions and Answers ad Orthodoxos (r) Quaest 56. it being questionable enough (Å¿) Vid. Coci Censur quorund Script in Script Just Martyr whether that Book were his or at least as we now have it but what may be found in his second Aplogy (t) Pag. 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and concerning which there is not any the least controversie in the Church In which Apology speaking of the excellency of the Christian Law above that of any humane ones in setting bounds to the carnal desires of men he hath these words And there are many men and women of sixty and seventy years of Age who having from their Childhood been discipled unto Christ have all their time continued uncorrupt or Virgins And I boast that I can shew such among all sorts of men For why should we also speak of that innumerable multitude of men who have chang'd from intemperance and so have learnt these things For Christ called not the just or temperate to repentance but the ungodly and intemperate and unjust Which words to an unbiast Reader cannot well signifie less than Childrens being then baptiz'd into Christianity That Father not only making mention of certain persons who had from their childhood been discipled unto Christ which we know from our Saviour (u) Matt. 28.19 to have been effected by Baptism and continu'd too all their time uncorrupt or Virgins which yet is a comtent proof of their being baptiz'd when Children but opposing them to such persons as had chang'd from intemperance and rather learnt that purity afterward than been discipled into it at the very first That opposition of his making it yet more evident that he meant such persons as were discipled to Christ from their very childhood and before they were in a capacity of learning him and his doctrine by instruction To this is Justin Martyr subjoyn we another of Irenaeus which is yet more clear for the Baptism of Infants For Christ saith that Father (w) Omnes enim venit per semetipsum salvare Omnes inquam qui per eum renascuntur in Deum infantes parvulos pueros jâ—venes seniores Ideo per omnem venit aetatem infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes in parvulis parvulus sanctificans hanc ipsam habentes aetatem Adv. haeres li.a.c. 39. came to save all persons by himself All I say who by him are born again to God Infants and little ones and Children and Young Men and Old Therefore he came in every Age and was made an Infant to Infants sanctifying Infants and a little one among little ones sanctifying those of that age c. Where we have him not only affirming Christ to have come to save Infants as well as others yea to have been made an Infant himself to sanctifie them which shews them in his opinion to have had a general right to the blessings of Christianity but speaking of several of them as born again unto God by Christ which is as much as to say baptiz'd That as it is the way by which all are to be so born even by the Doctrine of (x) Joh. 3. â— our Saviour so the way too by which the Antients apprehended it to be effected For thus where Justin Martyr intreats of the Baptism of those of his time he tells us (y) Apolog. 2. p. 93. 4. that they who were to partake of it were brought by the Christians to a place where water was and there regenerated after that manner of regeneration wherewith they themselves had been And to the same purpose also this very Irenaeus (z) Adv. haereâ— li. 1. c. 18. because not only attributing the same regeneration to it but representing it as the Doctrine of the Gnosticks as to that Baptism which they set up against our Saviour's that it was necessary for those who had received perfect knowledge to be so regenerated into that vertue or power which is above all things Which passage with the former one makes it yet more manifest that Irenaeus meant by such Infants as were born again by Christ unto God such as had been regenerated by Baptism and consequently that the Baptism of such was no stranger in his days I think I shall not need to insist upon the days of Tertullian because what the practice of that time was is evident from his disputing against Infant Baptism or at least advising to delay it There being no place for such a dispute or advice if the thing it self had not been then in use and in use too as he himself intimates in obedience to that precept of our Saviour which enjoyn'd the suffering little Children to come unto him in order to their partaking of his blessing and Kingdom And indeed as Origen who liv'd not long after him doth not only assert the same practice of infant Baptism but affirm * In Rom. 16. the Church to have receiv'd it as a Tradition from the Apostles So Tertullian's Scholar and great admirer S. Cyprian †Epist 59. gives such an ample testimony to it that I know not what need to be added to it For one Fidus having question'd him concerning the cause of Infants who he thought ought not to be baptiz'd till the eighth day according to the law of Circumcision S. Cyprian in a Council of sixty six Bishops made this following Answer to his demand That he and the whole Council that was with him had quite other thoughts of that affair they universally judging that the mercy and grace of God was to be deny'd to none that was born of men And again that if remission of sins were upon the faith of the parties given to the greatest Offenders neither was any of them debar'd from Baptism and grace how much less ought a new-born Infant to be debarred of it who had no other sin to answer for but what he drew from Adam and who came so much the more easily to receive pardon of sin because it was not his own proper sins but those of others that were to be forgiven him For which cause the opinion of the Council was that no one ought to be debar'd by them from Baptism and the Grace of God and that if that were to be observ'd and retain'd as to all persons whatsoever it was much more to be observ'd and retain'd as to Infants