THE MINISTRATION OF Publick Baptism OF INFANTS To be used in the CHURCH OR A DISSWASIVE FROM Baptising Children in Private By EDM. ARWAKER M.A. Despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. 11. 22. LONDON Printed by J. Leake for Edward Poole at the Ship over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1687. IMPRIMATUR Jo. Battely RRmo P. ac Dno Dno Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. Ã sacris Domesticis July 12 1686. Ex Aedib Lamb. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND Right Reverend Father in GOD HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON My LORD AMong the unhappy Irregularities that crept into our Church in the licentious days of Vsurpation none has proved so difficult to be reformed as that of Baptizing Children in Private Houses when there is no necessity requiring it and that too with the Publick Form of Administration For not only they who are Dissenters from us in the main but alas too many who profess themselves of us and would take it ill not to be reputed very good Sons of the Church of England persist obstinately in this Error and what is worse are apt to express a high resentment if the Clergy deny to comply with them while they at the same time refuse to hear the Church But it is our happiness that their Obstinacy tho' great cannot exceed or tire the pious Industry and unwearied Diligence of the Religious Prelacy to reduce us to that primitive Decency and Order for which our Church has been ever as Venerable as Eminent Of this your Lordship is a very signal instance whose Zeal to free our Church from this vile Corruption is proportionate to that Authority which you deservedly bear in it and has gone a great way so successfully in the Cure of that part which you more immediately adorn and govern that we are almost assured to see it perfected there by Your Lordship's Hand as we are encouraged to hope it will be through the Kingdom by the healing Applications of its Chief and worthily Most Reverend Metropolitan And since what is acted by our Governours in a higher Sphere commands our imitation in our inferior Stations I who am not in circumstances of manifesting my obedience in a Reformation can only testifie my good inclinations towards it in a weak endeavour of another kind the following Treatise that takes sanctuary under the Vmbrage of Your Lordship's name For which while I offer it to Your Lordship as an humble acknowledgment of former favours I must beg the additional one of Your Pardon and I cannot despair of that for any thing that wishes well to a design You have still been forward to promote And in that have added to many others one more grand Evidence of our happiness in Your Presidency over us which labors to reduce our Practice to the Purity and Splendor of those Rules that ought to influence and direct it But My Lord I fear to offend as much by a tedious Apologie as by the unworthy Present I would excuse and shall make only this for the Imperfections of this Piece That the Author has so much of the Cares and so little else of the World as not to be supplied with leisure and Books for an elaborate performance such as might be fit to offer to the Churches Service and Your Lordship's Patronage than which there is nothing more in the Ambition of My Honoured Lord Your Lordship 's Most dutiful Son and most devoted Servant EDM. ARWAKER MINISTRATION OF Publick Baptism OF INFANTS To be used in the CHURCH AS it is an Affliction that through a strange Deservency of the Primitive Zeal in the exteriour Worship of our God so Solemn and Eminent a part thereof as the Publick Celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism should be so much neglected not to say oppos'd as to stand in need of Patronage and Assertion so it is an Advantage to engage in the defence of a Practice as Antient as Christianity it self and as generally received till of late without Contradiction or Dispute Since therefore that devout and excellent Office labours under such unhappy Circumstances and that no other Pen has been purposely employed to redress the Grievance One of the meanest of its Admirers has ventur'd to expose his Weakness for its Cause rather than suffer it by appearing Friendless to fall into more contempt Let him not be thought herein to presume on his own Abilities which he is conscious how small they are since he espouses a Cause so arm'd with Truth Antiquity and Reason that it cannot be a sufferer ev'n by the weakest management Which makes him imitate the Hebrew Champion accosting the Philistin Giant and despise the Armour of fallacious Sophistry as sufficiently guarded and secur'd by the Nakedness of that Truth which he maintains And he cannot doubt but that the better it is discern'd it will have the greater Prevalency and in spite of Opposition become more than Conqueror For the Conviction then of such who refuse to bring their Children into the place of Publick Worship the Church to receive their Initiation into the Christian Religion by the Sacrament of Baptism there in the Face of the Congregation but either through Obstinacy Pride or Ignorance contend to have that Office perform'd within their Houses It may perhaps be pertinent to proceed in this Method and propose to their consideration First The Rubrick of our Church prefix'd to the Office of Publick Baptism of Infants Secondly The Consent in this particular between the Eastern and Western Churches Thirdly The Ground of this Rubrick upon what strength of Antiquity and Reason it relys Fourthly The Power of the Church to make this Injunction and the indispensable Obligation that lies on them to obey it And lastly To answer the most material Objections that are usually made against the performance of this Duty But here while the necessity of bringing Children to the Church to receive their Baptism is asserted it must be understood to mean it with a Supposition of their being in a condition fit to be carried abroad for in case of Sickness and extream necessity where there is danger of their dying Unbaptiz'd the Church has allow'd St. John the Baptist performing it in Publick and the Apostles afterwards when they were at Liberty so to do for it was done in the Assemblies of the People for the most part which is one main thing requisite to make any performance Publick and then it was done too in the publick places of Worship such as were consistent with the State of Christianity at that time the other great requisite to compleat a publick Office Thus Justin Martyr who flourish'd early in the Church speaking of the manner of administring Baptism says They meaning the Persons to be baptized are carried by us to the place where the Water is and are regenerated the same way that we had been before And again he says The Name of the God and Father of all things is mention'd and we invoke that alone leading the Person to be
Baptiz'd to the Laver or place of Washing by which Laver if he does not mean the Baptistery or Font yet he intimates the publick performance of the Office and is elsewhere positive that Baptism was administer'd in the publick Assemblies as we shall hereafter find him cited by the Magdeburgenses which sufficiently makes for the purpose of this Discourse For if in his time there were no public Fonts it was because the Church was not then in a setled State and the Church by performing those Offices of Baptism and the like in the places and at the times of their more solemn meetings did sufficiently declare those times and places to be the properest for such Administrations And that in the settlement of the Church they were determin'd to them will be manifest from St. Athanasius who flourish'd in the Year 340. who making an admiration of the Villany of those times says Was ever the like Fact committed even in time of War and Persecution And this unparallel'd Wickedness was the burning the Churches and Baptisteries By which it appears not only that Fonts for publick Baptism were then in use but that they had been of much antienter standing for had there not been such places long before how ridiculous had it been for the Father to say That the like wickedness had never been committed for the Interrogation here is much stronger than a Negative and to wonder at it as a new and unheard of Thing Neither was the use of Fonts unknown in the Latin Church for Tertullian of earlier date than Athanasius by above a Hundred Years says That going to the Font they the Persons to be Baptiz'd first made in the Church and under the Hands of the chief Ruler or Hierarch as Dionysius calls him an open Renunciation of the Devil c. And La Cerda in his Notes upon that place says It was not impertinently said by Tertullian in the Church for this Abrenunciation was not made at the Font but in the Church and then they went to the Font which as we shall have occasion to observe hereafter was sometimes built without the Church And that this may not seem an Objection against bringing Children to be Baptiz'd in the Church let it be remember'd that though the Baptism was sometimes administer'd without the Church yet the Examination and Abrenunciation were always made within it And St. Greg. Nazianzen in the Fourth Century tells us That the person Baptiz'd was led to the Altar saying The Station in which we presently stand after our Baptism before the great and holy Place represents the Glory of our future Life And St. Ambrose a Latin Father of that Century too has much to the same purpose thus Afterwards the Holy of Holies is open'd to you And in another place that you may understand what is the Second Tabernacle into which the Priest introduced you c. To conclude this quotation of the Fathers with St. Chrysostom much of the same Age we find him telling the persons to be Baptiz'd That tho' they who at their death are initiated by the Sacred Mystery of Baptism might obtain equal Favor and Grace with those who did not defer their Regeneration yet they had not an equal will and inclination neither was their Preparation which he much insists on equal For as he goes on the first were made partakers of that Sacrament in their Beds the others receiv'd it in the Arms and Bosom of the Church where we find he directly opposes the Baptism in the Church to the clinick Baptism superstitiously used by some Which sort of Baptism was so detested in the primitive times that he who receiv'd it was never to be admitted into Holy Orders and it was objected to Novatus after his surreptitious Consecration And this will give us the true sense of that Council where after mention of Easter and Pentecost for the Administration of Baptism it follows Therefore we command all Men reclaim'd from their Errors or Ignorance by these present Admonitions to wait with their Infants at the Church that they may injoy the Festivity of the lawful time meaning Easter c. and be Regenerated by the holy Sacrament of Baptism whereby they may if they live be capable of the honour of executing the Priestly Office If these are not sufficient Instances of this kind Cocceius will afford the enquiring Reader more To proceed then from the Fathers to the Councils we shall find in the Third Council of Constantinople in the Year 680. this express prohibition of Baptizing any not only in private Houses but even in the Oratories in them Thus Baptism must by no means be Administer'd in any private Oratory within a House But let those who being purg'd from their Impurities are thought worthy of Illumination be brought to the Catholick Churches and there let them injoy this benefit And the Non-observation of this is punish'd with deposition of the Clergy and with Separation in the Laity Which Canon is agreeable to that Novel in the Authenticks of Justinian wherein he says That it was establish'd by an antient Law That no one should perform divine Offices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a private House Which Law the Emperor there confirms with a new Interdiction making both the Owners of such Houses liable to a penalty and the Houses themselves to publick Taxes And he obliges the Patriarch to see this Law put in Execution under the Forfeiture of Fifty Pounds in Gold and he gives the reason of the penalty because it was a matter about which the Emperor was studiously careful as tending to preserve the unity of the Church and to prevent clandestine doings Tho' afterwards the Emperor Leo in his Constitutions allows Baptism to be administer'd in private Oratories which Oratories however were consecrated Places but not elsewhere And in another Council in 845. 't is decreed That no Priest should presume to Baptize any where but in the Baptismal Churches and at the times appointed unless in case of Sickness or extream Necessity However it may not be impertinent to strengthen what has gone before by some Testimonies which because they come from Persons either indifferent or profest Enemies to any thing that had an appearance of superstition will be unquestionable Cassander the Pacifick Catholick a Man of much Moderation and Indifferency who in one part of his Writings professes it is his business to avoid partiality and enquire into the truth of Things tells us that with general consent it was receiv'd in all Churches That only at certain times that is Easter and Pentecost Baptism was solemnly administer'd and that only in the Church by the Bishop and Priests c. and neither Children nor the adult were Baptiz'd in Private but in imminent danger of Death and when by reason of Sickness they could not without hazard of their Lives be brought abroad And Hospinian who has given
it is not a small help to the performance of a Promise to have frequent Memorandums of it How readily not to say how willingly we forget our Vows of Obedience and new life is but too obvious in our daily violations of them and it is an act of the highest Charity in those who remind us of them So that whoever with-holds his Child from the Publick Baptism deprives the Congregation of a charitable office which might perhaps have an influence on some or other there in order to amendment and Salvation But besides these Reasons there are others of no less weight and moment hinted in the Office of Publick Baptism of Infants tho' not mention'd in the Rubrick and those are First The veneration due to the Sacrament it self as a main part of God's Holy Worship And Secondly The just regard and deference due to the Churches as places set apart and consecrated to his Service That Baptism is a great and solemn part of God's Holy Worship it is to be hoped will not need much proof to any one who has had the honor and advantage to receive it They who hold more Sacraments than Two have yet allow'd in the title of the Entrance and In-let to the rest 'T is that Sacred office wherein we solemnly dedicate our selves to God wherein we enlist our selves Souldiers under the Banner of our Saviour and receive that Military Badge that distinguishes us from his Enemies and take those Oaths that oblige us to fight his Battels manfully 'T is the solemn Celebration of God's Worship wherein we express our esteem of it to be such that we dare bid defiance to the Devil for its sake that we renounce the Pomps and Glories of the World and neglect the Pleasures and Allurements of the Flesh the gratifying our Appetites and Inclinations to embrace it 'T is that Solemnity wherein we declare our unfeigned belief of and assent to all the Articles of the Christian Faith and wherein we stipulate and vow to perform a ready and sincere obedience to all the commands of our Creator And sure an Act of such general concern and universal benefit an Act of so much piety and perfection should be performed in the solemn and religious manner And Solemnity we know is never perfect but in publick neither does Religion tend so much either to the Glory of God or the Edification of our Brethren when retir'd and private as when conspicuous and eminent Besides if we consider the Nature of this Sacrament of Baptism the only Rule according to an eminent Person in our Church whereby to determine the manner and circumstances of any Action we shall find never to be performed properly but in publick because it is of a publick nature as it concerns the whole society of Christians and therefore is as well to be done in the presende as by the Authority of the Church when the Celebration may be most publick and awful For where can it be so but in the midst of the great Congregation The publick Assemblies for Religious Worship held by the Authority of the Church in places separated by of all Sacred Offices Among which Walafridus Strabo tells us that it has a more than ordinary claim to that of Baptism which saies he is more properly celebrated there because we read that before the Tabernacle stood the Laver and before the Temple the Brazen Sea and the Ten Lavers in which both the Priests that were to offer and the Flesh of the Sacrifices were washed and it is very becoming those who enter into the profession of Christianity to be regenerated in the Temple of Christ their Saviour None being fit to enter into the Church saies another who is not first cleaned in the Water of Baptism Not without great ground and reason therefore did the Council of Ilerda in the year 524. decree that every Priest that could not procure a Font of Stone should have a convenient Vessel for the administration of Baptism only which should not be at all carried out of the Church Nor with less discreet consideration nor without great authority of Fathers and Councils is it prohibited in the Clementins to any Priests to dare to administer the Sacrament of Baptism in any Halls or Chambers or other private Houses but only in the Church in which there are Fonts particularly for the purposes Unless to the Children of Kings or upon such an emergent necessity by reason of which the persons cannot without certain danger be brought to Church to receive it And then if we weigh this seriously and take Tertullian's Maxim with us that in those things which the Scripture neither commands nor prohibits that is to be observed which Custom has confirmed as proceeding from unquestionable Tradition we shall not condemn our Church for enjoyning but our selves for slighting a Duty so primitive and practicable a Duty which 't is sure was never opposed by any Church nor by any Sect that own'd the Sacrament it self but has ever been esteem'd decent and convenient by those who would not allow it to be requisite or of moment But if it were neither an ancient a religious nor usefull practice if it were novel indifferent and insignificant yet being enjoyn'd by our Mother the Church the Holy Catholick Church in general as well as the Church of England in particular it is obligatory to us who are Members of the Whole and especially of that part To some of whom with shame we must let the Reader know it this Paper is design'd since it of late appears too usual with some of those to dispute the Commands of the Church in this particular and obstinately refuse obedience to them Wherefore it will be requisite to proceed to shew the Churches Power to make injunctions of this kind and the indispensability of our obedience to them In the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of England contain'd in the 39 Articles it is asserted that the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies not repugnant to the Word of God Now that the bringing of Children to be Baptiz'd in the Church has no such repugnancy is undeniable and will be thought so till it appears wherein and then the Churches authority to enjoyn it will be evident from the practice of the Apostles for from the beginning it was so in forbidding Men to be cover'd in the Church and obliging Women to keep silence there in rejecting Prayer in an unknown Tongue and commanding all things to be done decently and to edification and several other instances among which were those things of which St. Paul says the rest will I set in order when I come And we have an harmony of Confessions among all the Protestant Churches acknowledging the same And the learned Chamier answering the Objection of Vasquez that the Protestants did some things which had no mention or command in the Scripture as for instance their Custom of