well proved is left to judge though for the weightiness is hard in few words to determine or many Certainly for (3) Quo peraequè adversus universas haereses jam hinc praeâ—udicatum sit Id esse verum quodcunque primum Id esse adulterum quodcunque posterius Tertullian adversus Prax. cap. 2. Ne innitaris prudentiae tuae Proverb 3.5 Prudentiae autem suae innititur qui ea quae sibi agenda vel dicenda videntur patrum decretis ante ponit Hieron in Proverb 3. 1200. or 1400. years such Interrogations Responsions Vow Promise Profession Confession c. with sureties and the interposition of divers other such requisits and performances of solemnity and use enough have been continued beside the bare and simple act of Baptizing by order And if nearer the fountain and up to the very well head as far as books and lights of information help us to see and also beyond if on this side of the Cross and the other and on both sides nearest how unlike is it but the best interceding times of our Saviour and his Apostles might have them likewise and both take and give them take them with one hand from the times before and convey them with Baptisme again to the times following They being in themselves such things as are not (1) Ritus tamen illos servandos judicamus qui sine peccato servari possunt ad ordinem bonum prosunt Confess Augustan art 15. vid. etiam Cassand Consultation cap. de Ceremon Baptismi pa. 84. evill but grave and good of no evident or probable iniquity in use or consequence and so far from superstition unless mens opinion make them so as by enhancing their necessity or ascribing to their effects c. that they tend openly to edifycation and the better (2) Omnia Decenter ordine fiant 1. Corinth 14.40 Ergo ersi alia desint quae ad decorem Sacramenti instituta sunt non ideò minus est verum sacramentum est sanctum siverbum sit ibi Elementum Nam in hoc Sacramento Baptismi in aliis quaedam solent fieri ad decorem honestatem sacramenti quaedam ad substantiam causam sacramenti pertinentia De substantia hujus sacramenti sunt verbum elementum Caetera ad solennitatem ejus pertinent Lombard Sentent lib. 4. dist 3. Ceremonias quae sacramenti hujus dignitatem vim commendent tanquam verba quaedam visibilia c. Cassander ubi supra handsomer fuller if not faster inocculation or graffing wild men into that holy stock which is Christs mysticall body the Elect company of most holy Believers his beloved Church For how handsome is it if those few who have the hap or rather happiness to be brought into the fold with Christs little flock (3) Renunciantes stetisse recto corpore ad solem occidentem spectasse manus protendisse in coelum erexisse complicasse invicem collisisse spiritum impulisse atque etiam in terram spuere singulorum ratio demonstrata apud Joseph Vicecom de antiquis rit Bapt. lib. 2. cap. 19. disclaim his enemy the roaring Lyon upon their entrance and have with them sureties fide-jussores is St Augustines common title Sponsores promissores in others that they do and will ever after defy and Renounce that Sathan those maligne opposite adverse powers that are most contrary to him as by all concessions and confessions the Devil the World and the Flesh are most notoriously such and undeniably Of what great obligation must it needs be to hold men fast and close in ever after to the Christian Law when and at the very admission the admitted shall enter upon no other terms but express and avowed undertaking condition and promise that he will ever after keep thereto How compleat must it needs make the present action cannot but speak it self out of being Baptized into the Faith of Christ if the heads or articles of that faith be then and there distinctly (1) As in the Baptisme of Prince Josaphat in Jo. Damasc History chap. 19. St. Augustine has an excellent treatise of the Explication of Christian Religion by giving the sum and heads of the Doctrin of the Old and New Testament before Baptisme de Catechizandis rudibus tom 4. pa. 295 c. The like is in Gregory Nazianzene in Orat. 40. in Sanctum Bapt. cap. 51. See also Augustine Serm. 130. ad Competentes repeated and rehearsed as the particular covenants of that Indenture or Agreement (2) Decret 1. distinct 23. cap. 6. solet enim plus timere quod singulariter pollicetur quà m quod generalis sponsione concluditur to which the (3) Olim in Baptismo fidem Christianam professuri publicè in coelum suspiciebant ac manus dextras in altum erigebant adhibito juramento coram testibus ac Jusjurandum manu baptizati subscriptum ejusque annulo obsignatum in tabulas referebatur uti ex patribus c. Cornel. à Lap. in 1 Pet. 3.21 As 't were in accomplishment of what the Prophet Esai foretold upon the powring forth of these mysticall waters One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with the hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the name of Israel Isa 44.4 Scribet in manu DEI SUM ut novo tyrocinio servitutis Christi se militem glorietur Hieron in loc tom 4 pa. 145. Intuentemque in coelum manus tendentem jubet Hierarcha Christo assentire omnibusque sacris verbis quae à Deo tradita sunt Dionys Hierarch Postquam autem renunciârunt convertit eos ad orientem ait tribus vicibus Consentio tibi Christe Deus Ego N. qui baptizor omni doctrinae quae revelata est à te divinitus per prophetas Apostolos Sanctos Patres Confiteor quoque credo baptizor in te in patre tuo in sancto spiritu tuo c. Severus patriarch Alexand. lib. de ritibus Bapt. in Biblioth pat tom 7. pa. 530. which is yet retained in those Countreys among the Cophti or Egophti Egiptians to this day Paget Christianog lib. 1. pa. 158. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nichol. Cabasil Liturg. exposit cap. 1. vid. Nicet de ordine qui observatur cum quis à Saracenismo c. loco suprà citat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill Hieros Catech. Mystag 1. Taking all together Fidem professuros in coelum suspexisse ac manus dextras in altum erexisse professionem publicè alta voce fieri solitam testes in ea adhibitos jusjurandum additum eam quoque in tabulas relatam profitentis vel alterius manu subscriptam ac demùm annulo obsignatam eorum omnium rationes allatas vid. apud Joseph Vicecom de antiqu ritibus lib. 2. cap. 27. All this belongeth to the manner the grave and circumstantical studied serious way of acting in this ministration
and so He being before and they after and but after him He hath in all things the priority or preeminence as Colos 1.18 or as here is hereby made the first born of many brethren From which TRANSFORMATION by the way in various expression so often pointed to and must therefore have had much Reality both in it self and common belief and from the truths depending thereon but those consequences overstrained as the manner is Might those perverse disputers men of corrupt minds that lived in those morning days draw colour of their claimed Liberty indeed open and boundless wild Licentiousness who questioned as appears by the Apostles often questioning them the dissolving of all bonds natural moral political oeconomical and of all worldly obligations by coming over to their new and regenerate freed condition If we look into 1 Corinth chap. 7. Ephes 5. Coloss 3.1 Timoth. 6. Ephes 5. 1 Pet. chap. 2. We shall there find servants ready to forsake their Masters women to divorce their husbands children rising up against their parents subjects against their liege Lords All champing irefully upon the bit and ready to take up the words of the Psalm Let us break their bonds and cast away their yokes from us All whatsoever that have held the world in quiet and kept us in duty and subjection Whence but from that change sounding in their ears and treasured up in their hearts They were not now what they had been They were Dead to the world Alive to God a chosen generation a peculiar people Born again the SONS of the most High and must they yet be held in by their old rotten bonds of corrupt carnal relations Which made the caution needfull and hence we have its just place and use taken up in the Epistle to the Galathians to keep all in order and due bounds ye have been called unto Liberty grant that but not such a liberty as may give occasion to the flesh or fleshly men to follow the swinge of their exorbitant desires to what they list and unbounded appetite may crave but in love still to serve one another and by another Apostle to the same sense As free so ye are saith St Peter only use not your new liberty justly claimed and freely granted for a cloke of maliciousness or licentiousness to any thing 1 Pet. 2.16 but as becomes the servants of God those would not shame a heavenly relation honouring all men loving your own fraternity fearing God obeying your King and submitting to all humane orders for Gods sake c. 1. Vse not your due liberty as a cloke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a metaphor taken from sordid men who though their cloths be underneath torn and vile yet if they get a handsom cloke to cast over they walk the streets in appearance neat the vileness is covered but the sordidness remaineth So many are apt to abuse Holy Religion and just Liberty to be a cloke and cover of their licentious wild unbridled passions and corrupt affections envy malice pride covetousness ambition revenge and the whole heap of troublesome and cursed sins sedition insurrection sacriledg disobedience to POWERS which is as the sin of witchcraft those reigning spirits their dominiering lusts within are subtle and active enough to tempt them to they have not their Christian liberty unless they may withhold their Tithes pull own Churches destroy societies discompose States subvert Government obey whom they list do what they list think speak act as they list But do not ye do thus saith the Apostle Ye have not so learned Christ or the freedom of his Gospel if ye have heard of him or been taught of him as the truth is in Jesus to put off that old man corrupt according to such erroneous lusts and put on the New created in righteousness that giveth every one his own and True holiness O be not so impious to profane a shrine to cover a strumpet to wrap up an Idol in Aarons holy robes to make Religion a stalking horse to come unsuspected at corrupt carnal seditious sacrilegious ends Let it be abomination and as the sin of witchraft to make sanctity a cover of iniquity fair liberty for any thing that is foul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a cloke 2. And as a cloke of Maliciousness not Malice a particular passion as usually translated and commonly understood but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of * Hujus virtutis contraria est vitiositas sic enim malo quam Malitiam appellare eam quam Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant nam MALITIA certi cujusdam viâ—ii nomen est VITIOSITAS omnium Cicero Tusculan Quaest lib. 4. Quas enim Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant Vitia malo quà m Malitias nominare Id. lib 3 definibus Naughtiness in general an ill disposition or Habit of wickedness so observed and suggested by learned (1) In his excellent and judicious Sermon on that text pa. 21. Dr Sanders so translated by him there and by others from the (1) As in Gen. 6.5 Wickedness was great on the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Exod. 23.2 Thou shalt not be with the many in ill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So deuteron 31.18 Jud 9.56 57. cap. 20.3 12 13. 1 Reg 12 19 17 20. cap. 17.28 cap. 24.12 and in many other plâ—â—e â—esides the Original of Eccles 33 32. Idleness teacheth much ill and chap. 15.21 All wickedness small to the wickedness of a woman twice together and in the New Testament Acts 8.22 1 Corinth 5.8 chap. 14.20 Ephes 4.31 Jam. 1.31 and in the beginning of this very chapter Lay aside all ILL In all which places and many more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here may be well and can be well nothing else but the head or comprehension of all Naughtiness Septuagint in divers places and that which is only rendred by that unusual abstract in the (2) Metum accipiendum Labeo dicit non quemlibet timorem sed majoris malitatis Digest Quod metus causa lib. 4. tit 2. LL. 5. Civil Law from Malus Malitas the head or comprehension of all evil and as in the Vulgar of Matth. 6 34. Sufficit diei Malitia sua sufficient for the day is the mischief thereof any ill or inconvenience do not abuse your priviledg to such designe your granted liberty by real change to an occasion or colour of ANY Evil As elsewhere when it was questioned May a new-born Christian (3) 1 Cor. 7.10 11. put away his old wife No nor a woman her husband but if the infidel will depart let him or her depart (4) Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13 Let every soul continue subject to the higher powers (5) Ephes 6.1 Col. 3.20 Children obey your parents still (6) Ephes 5.22 Colos 3 18. Wives your Husbands Servants your Masters And (7) 1 Tim. 6.1 2. if any have believing Masters let them not despise them because they are now brethren but do them
attendere Gregor Epistol l 11. Ep. 15. ad Episcop Neopolitanum And therefore he blames the restraint there laid upon the Jews from keeping their Feasts Decret 1. Dist 45. c. 3 they had not For let rigid men opine what they will their Opinion will never have work in order to the change of Things Duris mentibus and very sure such churlish and untractable dispositions all savage untaught barbarous whether Nations or unconverted Men have simul omnia abscindere impossibile esse non dubium est quia is qui summum locum ascendere nititur gradibus vel passibus non autem saltibus elevatur as the Learned Historian goes on to give the reason with the fact and he instances in (3) Ac similem plane gubernationis DEI Opt. Max. modum observare licet in rebus multis in lege nostra quia non licèt subito momento quasi transire à contrario uno ad alterum per consequens secundum Naturam hominis fieri non potest ut momento relinquat id cui longo temporis spatio est assuetus Cùm itaque misit DEUS Mosem Doctorem nostrum p.m. ut nos faceret Regale sacerdotium Gentem sanctam primo in cognitione DEI Opt. Max. sicut dicitur Ostensum est tibi ut scires c. Item Scito ergo hodie revocato ad cor tuum c. Deut. 4.85 39. Deinde in cultu DEI sicut dicitur ad colendum cum toto corde vestro c. Item servietis Domino DEO vestro c. Deut 11.13 c. Et usitata tum in mundo consuetudo erat cui omnes assueti cultus universalis in quo omnes erant educati ut variae animalium species in Templis illis in quibus Imagines illae collocabantur offerrentur coram illis procumberetur adoleretur certi insuper quidam essent cultores sequestrati quasi ad cultum illum destinati qui in Templis illis in honorem Solis Lunae reliquarumque stellarum extructis exercebatur sicuti ostendimus ideò noluit sapientia providentia DEI quae in omnibus ejus creaturis lucet mandare ut cultus illi omnes derelinquantur aut aboleantur Hujus enim rei cor humanum quod perpetuò ad id inclinat cui assuetum naturaliter non fuisset capax ac proptereà perinde fuisset acsi hoc nostro tempore Propheta aliquis veniret qui nos ad cultum DEI vocare vesset ac diceret DEUS praecipit vobis ne oretis ne jejunetis ne quaeratis salutem ejus in dâ—â— sanguitia sed ut cultus vester totus consistat in cogitatione non in opere Propter hanc itaque causam retinuit DEUS adhuc cultus eosque à rebus creatus phantasmatis quae nullam veritatem habent ad Nomen suum venerandum transtulit praecepit nobis ut illas exhibeamus Ipsi Thence Temples Altars Sacrifices Incense Priests by the Law Consilium autem in hac divina sapientia fuit ut memoria Idololatriae deleatur fundamentum illud magnum de Existentia Unitate DEI in gente nostra confirmetur nec tamen animi Hominum propter cultuum illorum abolitionem quibus assueti erant obstupescerent vel alios cultus scirent Moses Maiemonid in More Nevoch lib. 3. cap. 32. de praeceptorum ra ione pag 432. As the people were not brought through the Philistims countrey which was the nearer way but through the Desart which was the better way as there it follows Vide Aquin secunda secundae Quaest 10. Artic 11. Ideoque omnipotens patiens creator says Walafâ—idus Strabo on the same argument of Altars and Temples from the Heathen factuâ—ae suae volens undecunque consulere quia propter fragilitatem omnes con uetudines pariter tolli non posse sciebat permisit jussit quaedam sibi obedienter à piis exhiberi quae daemonibus damnabiliter ab impiis solvebantur as Temples and Sacrifices And other worshippers as forwardly and tractably borrowed mutually of them de rebus Ecclesiast c. cap. 2. JEHOVA Our great LORD GOD of Israel who took those very rites he says and sacrifices he found in Egypt and sanctified them being superstitious before for his own peoples service in his own Land by his own Law to bee used in the most holy Service of Himself and in his own city temple of Ierusalem Their former prophaneness held no antipathy to keep out his more powerful sanctification rushing in by force nor their ill use or worse Masters could lay any bar against his claim or possibility of acceptance of what he chose but that he might have retain use and be worshipped by that which before he laid his holy hand upon it had been prophaned to the worst even Aegyptian Idolatry The like might Christ doe after in this matter of Baptisme sooner giving form then making matter rather taking what he found for his purpose at his own Ierusalem then fetching from Arabia or elsewhere and placing it there or Creating it whole anew Nor was it so much as a Feast or a Temple a little farther to consecrate a religious rite for Him was Master of all Religion and had power so to doe And we may be the better perswaded of this derivation rather then Creation which usually passes if we consider the similitude and resemblance is between these we here take liberty to call the Primitive and Derivative Original and Abstract or the same in one Religion and the same in another for the same end for there was the same Name common to both the same Rite used in both the same End proposed of both and the like Ministration as to the Manner and Persons admitted or admittable The Name was and is Baptisme the Rite Washing or Purification by water the End a New Birth to be thereby Born again or admitted to a new Religion questioned once whether Circumcision the old Partner should not be also retained among Christians for the same purpose Acts 1â— and for the ministration both as to the Manner and the Persons Things may not be thought they could have been more like then as 't is described by them these were the old Baptism in days of old and our New at first as it was when it was fresh and New For to forbear inlarging on the first things as touched at before and confine to the last as to the Manner of old Baptisme this we make no doubt to affirm it was it self that is Baptisme the (1) So M. Purchase in his Pilgrim l. 2. c. 2 out of Pet. Ricius de coelesti Agricult l. 3. ad praecept 113. whole body covered in water and some (2) Foemina in aquis collocabatur collo tenus à foeminis Selden p. 146. placed in it up to the chin (3) Has cisternas adeò profundas aqua plenas esse oportet ut cum descenderint in eas aqua ad collum eorum
consent the more is the pity the same mistaken way But is it so No it is not so There was a rite of Baptisme in Religion for regeneration I step one foot farther and for renovation institution initiation into new faith and profession before (6) Matth. 2 1. Luc 2.4 Jesus the son of a Virgin was born in Bethlehem in the land of Judea in the days of Herod the King or his elder servant and next Herald practised to make way for his Master to come (7) John 4.23 in Aenon or any where else and for this there is proof enough full home pregnant plentifull though not Scripture-proof and yet such as Scripture contradicts not neither as good as the world uses to afford in like case Far be it I should be overlavish to grant the adjective of Christian regeneration Christian Baptisme That such and Ours by which alone we hope so far as Sacraments may admission into the new Jerusalem began I believe with the New Testament and has the form authoritatively ordered from him that could alone and did our highest Prophet and Saviour and Redeemer Matth. 28.19 Thus or to this baptize not till now or then But for Baptisme or religious washing at large for the words are the same a Rite Seal Means Ordinance believed of ingraffing to a new Faith or Religion not without regeneration intercedent though not ours This was both in the (1) Certè ludis Apollinariis Eleusiniis tinguntur idque se in regenerationem impunitatem perjuriorum suorum agere praesumunt Tertullian lib. de baptismo c. 5. world before and in the Church Our Saviour did but transfer not bring up dispose not create order appoint metamorphose and sanctifie (2) Verum quidem est Christum Apostolos expressim quaedam alia docuisse ac imperasse in quibus fundamentatotius religionis Christianae collocantur horumque nonnulla verbi gratiâ baptismi sacramentum ex anterioribus Judaismi moribus sumta ac in ipsis retenta sic Christianismi suum formasse ac novasse ut novatum inde Institutum divinum planè accessisse inde sit dicendum Sed ejusmodi c. Selden de Synedriis vet Heb. lib. 1. cap. 13. pa. 492. a new not raise to beeing that which both had been and had been holy before making it to us (3) Tit. 3. ver 5. the Laver of regeneration and gate of spiritual a degree of eternall life as breaking of bread was before it became a pledg of Christian Communion and as the (4) To conceive there was no Rainbow before the Flood because God chose out this as a token of the Covenant is to conclude the existence of things from their signalities with equall reason we may infer there was no water before the institution of baptisme nor bread and wine before the Eucharist So the most exquisitly learned and judious Dr. Brown in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica book 7. chap. 4. The argument whereof is to prove That the Bow was before the flood rainbow had a being in nature before God appointed it to be significative to the world by judgment of good (5) vid. Scharp Symphon Epoch 2. Quest 9. pa. 66. Bellarmin de Sacramentis lib. 1. cap. 17. Philosophers-Divines Genes 9. and thereby a kinde of (6) Ne diluvium alterum formidaret Noachus intueri Iridem atque huic fidere Sacramento jussus fuit Pet. Cunaeus de repub Heb. lib 3. c. 2. vid. Luther de captivitate Babilon cap. de bapt Calvin Institut lib 4. c. 14. sec 18. Sacrament to give sensible pledge and assurance of what it is there set for In short Baptisme (7) See more hereof in Grotius upon Matt. 3.6 was before our Master brought in ours it had a being He made it our Sacrament washing was in use he new washed and sanctified it and made Baptisme taking in his own name to be Christianing which God grant it may be to all the welcome and willing partakers thereof wheresoever the gate of heavenly life here and of heaven it self in the Heaven of heavens hereafter Amen Amen Secondly Hence may be made a discovery of the gates of new and old Sion of equall wideness the dore of the Synagogue as broad as the Churches and either wide enough to let in Sacramentally both sexes I mean by a solution of the great doubt hitherto so much tossed but to or toward satisfaction so little determined of rationally and resolved sc How (8) Hac ratione Judaeorum liberi per faederis circumcisionis observationem Judaei fiunt sc the males Quod si Judaea filiolam pepererit nativitas ejus tam parvi aestimatur ut in libris eorum de ea nihil ferè scriptum invenire mihi licuerit except this little Quod puellulae quaedam juvenculae quando filiola nata sex hebdomadarum est circum cunas in quibus linteolis pulcherrimis cincturisque argenteis ornatis ea posita cubat se collocent eamque cum cunis aliquoties elevent in altum eique tum demum nomen imponant quod ea quae ad caput infantis a stat susceptrix ejus sit quae rebus istis peractis cum puellis aliis convivium paratum agitans edat bibat ita tempus aliquod hilaris laetaque cum eisdem transmittat Ridiculous yet this is all from Buxtorfius in Synagog Jud. cap 2. de nativitate circumcisione Judaeorum pa. 96. women were taken into the old of Moses or Jehovah's Covenant Macherae petrinae eundem heic fuisse usum quem in maribus praeputandis die scilicet octavo juxta praeceptum Abrahae datum Nemo sanus puto affirmabit imprimis de Israeliticis foemellis DEI popularibus JEHOVAE peculio quarum vel circumcisionem vel excisionem vel concisionem nullibi commemorat sacra (1) For the instances we read of were Abraham Isaac Ishmael Hamor Sichem Gershom Jesus Nazareus John Baptist Paul Timothie c. all Males The Law Every Manchild among you shall be circumcised Genes 17.10 Act. 7.8 He that is 8 days old among you shall be circumcised every male in your generations ver 12 of Gen. 17. The uncircumcised male shall be cut off from his people ver 14. according to which Rule In this will we consent if ye will be as we every male circumcised chap. 34.15 proposed again ver 22. Nor is memoriall of any order or instance to the contrary or different in those we imbrace for sacred oracles pagina vel in lege vel exemplo si res ipsa forsan (2) For the Rule was of males only who had by nature the foreskin of the flesh to be cut off the females wanting it were not to keep this rite though they were as well as men within the Covenant of Grace in Christ says Mr. Ainsworth on Gen. 17.12 Epiphanius proposed the question if circumcision were needfull to salvation How were Rebecca Leah Rachel c. saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
divinarum scriptores qui c. adjicere Quorum plerique cum non longo intervallo ab Apostolis disjuncti sint necessaria consequutione colligimus Susceptorum usum ab ipsis Apostolis incepisse Joseph Vicecom de antiquis Bapt. ritibus lib. 1. cap 30. By Caranza's credit St. Mark was so adopted by St. Peter Hic scripsit duas Epistolas quae catholicae canonice nominantur Evangelium Marci qui Marchus auditor ejus fuit filius à Baptismo summ Conciliorum fol. 12. in vita Petri. True indeed St. Mark was his son He stiles him so and that we imbrace for Holy Writ gives it us In 1. Epist 5.13 The Church which is at Babylon saluteth thee and Marchus my son So his son he was and not natural no one hath said this Ergo. at home and generally all sorts of Writers which may be thought to have had occasion to mention them who have not forgotten them Now may not a more probable origination of them then hitherto indeed scarce thought on before be made out by deriving them from the like assistants at the same rite by the same ceremony for the very same end of regenerating men to new Religion though the Jewish way as first Christianity throughout was nothing else but Judaismus reformatus as the learned stile it or the corruptions of Moses and the Prophets reformed by Jesus of Nazareth and his Discsples and they be thought to be taken up in succession of the (1) Look back to what was said of them before pa. 16. and compare therewith what is said of Ordination In Pandectis Hebraeorum ordinatio presbyterorum per impositionem manuum tribus fieri debet praesentibus Selden commentar in Eutych Num. 10. pa. 20. Triumvirate before spoken of to be that Triumvirate continued without whose presence or assistance necessary none were ever regenerate unto the Church of Israel As by the way our making the business clearly (2) For the Church of Christ is so gentle and reasonable a Mother that she would have none forced to yeild to her Jurisdiction or constrained without due self-conviction to yeild subjection to her soveraign and commanding Power Whence way to Baptisme hath been usually made not without explicite satisfaction given in two things 1. Whether the competens or desirer thereof were willing to come over to her 2. Whether he would frame his life accordingly and not be a disgrace to that School a blemish to that society which is the Houshold of God 1 Timoth. 3.15 Ephes 2.19 Galat 6.10 whose conversation Philip. 3.2 is already in heaven So was it in the Synagogue of Israel Nolentem non cogebant in se suscipere legem prophetas says Maiemonides He that would not should not be theirs they forced none to their Law understand the Law of Moses and to compleat proselytes for the lower sort were as 't were constrained or not suffered else to live with Israel because Israel might not associate with them and Munster When any desire to be a Proselyte they propose to him the hardest things of the Law with some pennances and they would seem by these means to be willing to drive men from their Religion in Evangel Mat. Hebr. cap. 22. A special part of that enquiry was whether by love and choice c Diligenter an ob simplicem Judaismi amorem in illum transire desideraret explorantes as Mr. Selden de Jure nat pa. 143. in exact paralel to what in St Augustine Utrum propter vitae praesentis aliquod commodum an propter requiem quae port hane vitam speratur de Catechizand rudibus cap. 16. cap. 26. tom 4. pa. 301. And this might give reason why in the prosperous days of Solomon and his father so few were admitted perhaps none but the Courts down least Fear of power or Hope of reward or any thing but Love and Choice might seem to inforce or permit them to Israel So at this day Si alcune volesse farsi Hebraeo primo sono tenuti tre Rabbini ô persone di autorita interrogaclo sottelmente che cosa lo move à far questa rissolutione è intender bene se fosse à qualch fine mondana che devono licentiarlo è poi protestarle con notificarle che la legge Mosaica è strettissima è che gl'Hebraei al presente sono abietti è vili esotarlo che meglio sarebbe ch'egli se ne stasso nel stato che si trova Which by the help of a Spectacle I thus read If any one would be a Jew he must first be precisely questioned by 3 Rabbines or persons of authority What is that moves him to take this resolution and understand well that if it be for a worldly end they ought to leave him and then to let him know and protest that the Law of Moses is very strict and that the Hebrews are at present abject and vile and exhort him that it is better for him to continue in his present condition But if he give a fast answer then he is to be circumcised c. from Ludovic Mutinens de gli riti Hebraici part 5. cap. 2. Now for the Christian side beside St Augustine before hear St Chrysostome Sicut nos servos ementes ipsos qui venduntur prius interrogamus an nobis servire velint Ita facit Christus quando futurus est in servitutem te caper◠Prius interrogat an velis illum crudelem tyrannum dimittere à te faedera suscipit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non enim coactum est ejus imperium Homil. 21. ad popul Antioch tom 1. pa. 244. As we when we hire servants enquire of their will to serve us So Christ willing to own no one against his will And thence he reckoneth that Baptisme unavailable which is in sickness c. when a man seems driven in by the tempest of pain and has not command of his whole self in Homil. ad Illuminandos pa. 707. The incongruity of which time for which reason Basil left observed Quid expectas beneficio febris baptizati c. in Exhortat ad Bapt. Homil. 13. tom 1. pa. 415. And the Canon Law which would not admit such into Orders Dist 57. cap. 1. As nor the Councel of Neocaesarea siquis in aegritudine fuerit baptizatus ad honorem presbyterii non poterit pervenire quòd non ex proposito fides ejus sed ex necessitate descendit can 12. nor Cornelius Bishop of Rome whose restraint of the Clinici or those were baptized in their beds may be seen in Binius in Epist ad Fab. Antioch pa. 163. tom 1. Dionysius the Areopagit to take the highest has left Imprimis interrogandum esse baptizandum antequam Ecclesiam ingrediatur num velit ejus esse professionis as Gregor Tholosau in Syntagn 2.4.10 Wilt thou be baptized into this Faith Walafrid Strabo Notandum quod primis temporibus illis solummodò Baptismi gratiam dari solitam qui corporis mentis integritate
Hebrew Proselytes so 't was as needfull they should now continue to joyn for compleating the admission of Christians the rather because the new Religion did seem to promise as much as the old which ought to be performed in matters of substance and therefore it should do very ill to scant it in Circumstance or Ceremony Nothing is more certain then the devout and zealous managing of strong attempts to bring in that second rite the holy (1) Galat. 2. ver 3 14 16. cap. 5.2 3 4 6 chap. 6.12 13.13 15. 1 Cor. 7.18 19 Colos 3.11 Timothy though a half-Gentile circumcised by Paul to comply with the Jews even after the Church-sentence Act. 16.3 Story lays it down at large in several places obliquely or by the way directly and as of full intent in one whole chapter of Acts 15. where poor Christendom contributed all the force it had to establish a firm Decree and in that first general and only Apostolical Councel that ever met as far as we know the Fathers consulted not chiefly but only about this business Nor do I remember to have met with a more likely and sitting state of the doubt occasioning the meeting then this sc to determine Whether Circumcision were not now as necessary to welcome advenae into Christian Religion as it had been joyning in with Baptisme or Whether old friends might part here and which the Councel thought fit Baptisme be enough without Circumcision A way of stating the doubt that hath not been altogether without mention before for though I have not observed many to look so deep yet (2) Mr. Joseph Mede late of Cambridg in his Diatribâ— pa. 97 98 c. One and in our own language too hath lately proposed the Question directly a very learned man whose Sermons are Sermons and He assignes the reason of the Councels meeting somewhat otherwise yet somewhat toward this thus There were saith he two sorts of Proselytes Some of a lower degree Proselytes of the gate Proseliti domicilii admitted without any ceremony and there were other made perfect Hebrews Proselytes of Justice and by consequent circumcised Now the doubt was of these two to whom or whether Christians should conform VVhether to the lower to be made without any ceremony at all or to the other of the Covenant who being circumcised if Christians were to conform to them they must needs be circumcised also And he interprets the Councel met to determine for the former sc that Christians needed no more initiation then those of the lower sort who were entred without any Ceremony at all Not of the higher who were only circumcised and therefore Christians needed not because to them they were not to hold conformity But I crave leave to (1) And excuse in the borrowed words of Pet. Cunaeus Nam ille qua fuit animi aequitate dedisset ingenuo candori nostro veniam Etenim in corruptam libertatem professi sine à more sine odio quid rectissimè dicatur â—xquirimus de repub Hebraeorum lib. 3. cap. 5. dissent from so learned a man who it seems to me mistakes a little for this could not be the doubt to which sort Christians should conform to those made with or without Ceremony For this the Master of Religion had more then in part determined before by his admission and command of Baptisme whereof they could not be ignorant But if to the perfecter as he had already implyed order in ordering Baptisme then how far forth to them whether that taken in already would be enough to Wash and be clean or whether there needed as aforetime to wash and circumcise and so to make compleat Christians by the compleat use of both those ceremonies that had formerly went to the compleating those came over the highest Proselytes to the Hebrew Law This if it might have been had would have pleased the Jews well especially the more learned Pharisees zealous of the traditions of their Fathers had been of fair pretext to keep old friends together whose parting implyed and was a change in Religion and many other things might have been thought of and no doubt were But against them all the Court determins for a non-necessity of the Questioned rite (1) Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shâ—ll profit you nothing For I testifie again to every one that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Galat 5.2 3. Circumcision would have been the earnest of all Moses the Harbinger of the Law the first link of that chain would have brought in all Leviticus Therefore what Christ had ordred and appointed was to be rested in as sufficient the observance of his Law duty and burden enough and his followers madeover unto him and consigned fast and sure enough by the single use of his own appointed Baptisme This I take to be the state of the case and ground of that doubt takes up so much place and finds so often repetition in the story and doctrin of the later times of the New Testament which if I have so determined as none before me it might be for want of the same grounds and what light hath guided me to where I am I humbly think may guide in some measure others also And farther yet into the reason of one thing more still upon the Stage the Quod sit whereof hath exercised the pens of many but for the Cur sit I have not found so much as an Enquiry attempted sc Why so many of old of late and now both do and did retain Circumcision with Baptism for consigning over believers into the profession of the faith of Jesus Christ They were and are abroad many and 't is like will be to all times to come who did and do so Whence this conjunction Whence but from that they did go together at first they were found together and so taken and kept even in flat contradiction of an Apostles Jerusalem Councel General many would and will do as their ancestors have done before them They finde Circumcise in the plain letter of the Law of faithfull Abraham as well as Wash after into Moses Law and therefore they will retain both Circumcise and Wash after which is natural rather then Wash onely having had no occasion by Circumcision For who they were as to times past Mr. (2) On the 27 Article of the Church of England propos 1. Rogers applies it to commendation of Believers in England that in matter of Baptisme We do not defile the Ordinance of Christ by any unnecessary supervenient additions but profess adversaries to the (1) Qui ita Christum recipiuntâ—nt observationem legis veteris non amittant Hierom. in Esai 8. tom 4. pa. 32. Hoc igitur uno tam à Christianis quam à Judaeis differunt ab illis quidem quòd in Christum credant à Christianis vero quod Judaicis adhuc vitibus implicentur velut circumcisionâ— Sabbato c. Epiphan haeres 29. sect 7.
Lyturgy Wilt thou be baptized says the Minister in this faith whereto answer is given It is my desire In this faith What in the Ministers faith or the offerers or any others belief of the Articles then repeated Or rather INTO this faith that is that which by the self or by thy Sureties thou hast now repeated and yeelded thy self a proselyte of by ratification of firm consent Say Nothing shall be done without thy pledge of good wil Strike up the bargain as thou hast said All this I firmly believe (3) Printed 1571. by Reynold Wolfe at London Wilt thou now be baptized into this faith So it was expressed in the old Latine translation when the sense of the Composers was fresh abroad Minister Credis in Deum patrem omnipotentem c. Respons Omnia haec firmiter credo Minister Cupisne in hanc fidem baptizari Resp Cupio And so in the Greek of Mr. Petile within this ten years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wonder he continued not his care to what follows to render to it self that which was first written in this language ruling Scripture the immediate and underived word of Oracle given by the holy Ghost For thus he proceeds to give the form Strange misgiving both together preposition and case N. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a little before Christ out of his most pretious side did powre both water and blood and gave commandement to his Disciples to go teach and baptize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. No it was not so Each is a depravation both of Text and Work Christ gave commandement for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. view his words Search the Scripture the syllables whereof give that and nothing else and he perverts that besides this way leads any other But his excuse may be he followed the Rode and his present Text. One error very gently but powerfully leads on another How this went a good while since we may have from St. Cyrill of Jerusalem Postea deducebamini ad sancti divini baptismatis lavacrum c. Atque tunc unusquisque interrogabatur an crederet in Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patris Filii Spiritus sancti confessi estis confessionem salutarem Catech. Mystagog 2. But to return here at home the interrogation propounded in the sense given would make fit way as it does to baptism then at hand an act of adoption admission consecration regeneration (1) Learned and pious Dr. Hammond remember here in the late Additions to his Practicall Catechism of the two possible interpretations of that Text giving the foâ—m of Baptisme Matth. 28.19 na es this one INTO the Names of Father Son c. Mr. Hooker He which baptizeth baptizeth into Christ He which converteth converteth into Christ Eccles Polit. lib. 8. p. 202. Mr. Dell if he be the Author of the late Tract Against Water-Baptism professing to lay aside all to hearken onely to the Divine Oracles he maketh use enough of this Criticisme his way Nor could many of his arguments hold if it were any other then INTO the Name power faith and assistance of the Trinity c. pa. 15. into a new state faith religion profession the proper end of the work Which past there follows soon after the induction or legall investiture of the proselyte into his new heavenly profession and the believed possessions of grace We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christs flock with yeelding most hearty (2) Benedictus Deus pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi qui pro ingenti misericordia sua regeneravit te in spem vivam in haereditatem incorruptibilem incontaminatam immarcessibilem c. Vpon the Baptisme of Prince Josaphat in Jo. Damamascenes History pa. 19. thanks unto the Father of Heaven that he hath been pleased to regenerate that child sure unto somewhat some new state to receive him for his by adoption and to (3) Neither do we think that this custom is only an idle ceremony but that the infants are then indeed received and sanctified of God because that they are then ingraffed into the Church Confession of Saxony Artic. 13. incorporate him into his holy Congregation and prayer that being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness he may lead the rest of his life according to that beginning I know not what to other but to me nothing under any cloud of darkness or doubt seems ever to have been better recovered to clearness certainty and light agreeable with the words of Scripture the sense of the business the sound judgement of believers orthodox and pious of elder times and later and above all to the scope and nature of the work to make this holy divinely-instituted Rite speak out it self to be a Sacrament of renovation consecration admission into a new religion faith and belief or which one word is both proper and significant enough a very CHRISTIANING or admitting INTO CHRIST as the old word was once even at the (1) Constitut Provincial li 3. de effectu baptismi circa Sacramentum Font I Cristen the in the Name of the Feder and of the Son and of the holy Goste Or as it was in Lyndewoods time because some love the mouldy best I Crystyn the in the name of the Fader and of the Sone and of the holy Goste Insomuch that all things fit in so well I cannot but incline to wish now that all is sub incude under the revise of strict Scripture-examination with which these things agree meetly wel that among other this may find place of consideration and if any thing be found really amiss by those are fit to judge be by those that have power also reformed and amended The business is of weight and moment touching our Freehold as men use to say the quick of our Religion one of our inmost mysteries or Sacraments and the highest of that which can be done amongst men by Christs appointment too for (2) Quem Baptismum omnium Sacramentorum esse januam Salvator noster instituit c Cùm igitur circa ingressum januae error maximè periculosus existat praedictus legatus c. Constitut Octoboni tit De Baptismo admitting into the visible Church and estating in heavenly hopes as giving of the (3) Quae verba scholae vocant formam Baptismi nos formulam verborum dicere malumus Bucan loc commun 47. sect 20. form and essence of that Rite whereby we are sacramentally made or declared Christians as some love to say the form of that form And whereof we may say contrary to those who have written de fossilibus who after much turning find little metall and so have parvum in multo but here is multum in parvo very much in very little the worth of a Talent in the weight of a Scruple What shall it profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul How further the salvation of his soul but by being in Christ