in prose Seeing then that outward things do so notably teach us and the more any thing solicits any of our senses the more acceptable it is unto us God hath been pleased so to deal with man that he shall not want such lessons This manner of Discipline may be deduced from the first Adam to the Second For God placed the first man in a Paradise a fair and beautifull Garden abounding with all manner of fruits c. which was but a Type of the coelestial paradise above that is watered with streams of Light from the face of God and rivers of pleasures from his heart in the midst of which the Son of God is the tree of life An image I say God gave him of Heaven but none as yet of Hell because man was made to be happy So God likewise gave him a Commandment the matter of which was outward and sensible of abstaining from one tree in the Garden which was but a document of the subjection he did ow to his Creator and of the tenure whereby he held all his injoyments After his disobedience men were some way or other directed by him to make offerings to God of their beasts and fruits as acknowledgements of their dependance and homage and adumbrations of the Sacrifice of that seed that was newly promised In process of time when obedience grew cold and their thoughts its like of another life but dull God took Enoch to himself when he was but 365. years old to teach them by themselves as well as other things that there was another life and a reward that remained for those that walked with God which was hetter then the longest term of years in these earthly possessions But wickedness still increasing God destroyed the world by a Deluge of waters which was but a shadow of the dreadfull showers of wrath the streams of fire and brimstone that should fall upon the heads of the wicked in the other life whereby God would terrifie the new planters of the world and give them an image of Hell as he had done before of Heaven But this was not a lasting visible monument of Gods anger and therefore in aftertimes Sodom and Gomorrah Jude 7. and Cities about them were set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of an eternal fire which places lay just in the view under the eye of that people whom God made peculiar to himself served as continual marks of his dipleasure and instances of his wrath to make them for ever to beware That peculiar people God separated to himself by the sign of Circumcision the seal of the Covenant that he made with them This mark was most properly made in that part of their flesh because the great promise to Abrah was that he would multiply his seed as the stars of Heaven Gen. 17. and that in his seed all the Nations of the world should be blessed and it aptly represent besides other things that they were to be an holy seed unto the Lord. After this God did by two persons Iacob and Esau shadow forth unto them that his favours are at his own disposal and that they are not confer'd by nature but by grace In the line of Iacob besides that there were many mystical and secret significations of his Will which God made by sundry persons and actions there were also many outward manifest images given of heavenly things In the Law that Moses delivered to them their several washings their meats their sacrifices to name nothing else were all signs of all sorts of purity and obedience too many now to be particularly related Their offerings and some of their sacrifices represented the obedience and services of particular Christians who are made Priests unto God but the chiefest of them represented the offering and sacrifice of the high Priest of our profession which was Christ himself And that I may not be tedious when God would shew the greatest favour to the world and open most of Heaven and things above he comes dwels amongst us in the person of his Son and in an outward shape manifests himself to our eyes and ears For in the very humanity of Christ so much of Divinity appeared and the Majesty Wisdom Power and Goodness of God so rayed forth that he saith to Philip He that hath seen me Joh. 14.9 hath seen the Father also Yea When God would give a Testimony of Jesus to be his Son he doth it by the visible descent of the holy Ghost which he saw coming down upon him like a Dove as if he would tell us that his own Son shall likewise be taught by these outward signs resemblances he being in all things to be conformed unto men § 4 Though our Lord therefore hath taught a Religion more full of spiritual notions then had been manifested before and hath given more clear notions of things above unto mens minds then had formerly come unto them yet he would not quite alter the old manner of Discipline by outward things but retains some of them in his Oeconomy knowing how weak the minds of men are and how much more easily they apprehend by sense then by themselves Only it is to be observed that he hath made eventhese outward things to speak more plainly and tell their meaning more distinctly hath writ their instructions in a greater and more legible letter then ever before § 5 Baptism is one of those Reliques a Symbole of great and clear significancy the Sacrament ef Regeneration or the second birth which it doth most aptly express as the following Treatise will sufficiently shew you For the present it may suffice to say that water of all things that are easie to be got and are at hand was the most fit thing that can be thought on to be chosen to make an Embleme of the spiritual Generation For we naturally come out of a liquid moist substance out of a slimy water or in Jobs phrase We are poured out like milk and then curdled in the womb like cheese Job 10.10 It is not unusual in the Scripture to speak of our natural procreation under the Metaphor of Water as may be discerned by consulting but these two places Prov. 5.15 16 c. Prov. 9.17 And it is well known that while we lie in the womb we swim in a sweet liquor and hang by the Navel in the midst of a watry nourishment Osiris and Isis if we may believe Plutarch were nothing in the Aegyptian Muthology but the river Nile and the earth between which two all things were begotten So the Scholiast upon the first verse of Pindar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinks that therefore water is to be reputed the best of things because out of it the other three Elements are begotten out of the subtil part of it the air is begotten out of the grosser being curdled and compacted the Earth and out of the more aetherial and spiritous part the Fire But perhaps I do not well to pursue
this notion so far and our Saviour might not have respect to such things as these Yet this we are sure of John 3.5 that we must be born again of water and the Spirit and that our spiritual nourishment after Christ is conceived with in us is compared unto water also as you may see John 4.14 And I cannot but likewise think that he had some regard in appointing Baptism to the cleansing and cooling quality that is in water and that it excellently represents unto us the Spirit of God to be poured forth to the purifying and washing us from the filth of sin and the blood of Christ to the extinguishing our guilt and quenching the heat of Gods anger that might justly burn in our souls when we did remember that we were sinners But there have so many several § 6 winds of Doctrine blown upon these Waters of Baptism and strove together that they are become troubled and darkened so that one can scarcely see with any clearness to the bottom of them The great Controversies that have arose about the persons that should be baptized have so tossed and agitated mens thoughts that I doubt few have any calm and setled apprehensions of the nature and end of Baptism it self Most books that treat of this subject are so concerned in the quarrel of Infants that the use which men ought seriously to make of it is much forgotten If men thought more of its true ends they would lay aside their Disputes or not manage them so roughly and they would soon see that we are all baptized into the same Spirit and made of the same body and entred by it into the same society and community of holy and peaceable Ones What more cool then water What sooner puts out all our fires If the waters of Baptism next to the blood of Christ were sprinkled upon our intemperate heats they would asswage our boiling passions and we should contain our selves within the due bounds of a loving and gentle Zeal But as I said it is but little thought of for what Christ did institute this holy Rite Some look upon it but as a cold Ceremony and many speak of it as a thing that must be done because Christ hath commanded but cannot tell to what purpose and others glory in it as a priviledge but little understand any thing of duty that it requires of them L. 31. c. 2. Pliny tells of a water in Cilicia which is called he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mind because it will make their senses that drink it subtil and apprehensive Suidas on the contrary saith that it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or want Wit because it makes people foolish and takes away their understanding Such a different esteem do men seem to have of these waters of Baptism while some who seem wise despise them as of no efficacy and use them only in compliance with simple people and others make them such heavenly waters that they doubt not at all but being baptized they are wise enough unto salvation but both of them are agreed in this to understand no Engagement that is laid upon us by them and to expect that what they can do should be wrought alone by them without any help or assistance from our selves And we find the greatest multitude of that sort who do glory in Baptism as the Jews did boast of Circumcision who say in effect what Julian its like falsly makes Constantius say In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That our Religion requires nothing of the greatest sinners but only this Wash and thou art clean from all thy foul crimes and if thou commit them again do but knock thy breast and beat thy head and all is well But Justin Martyr might have answered him and gives us all another lesson in his Dialogue with the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. where he saith What good doth that Baptism that scours the skin only and makes the body white Baptize your selves from anger and from covetousness from envy and hatred and then behold your body is clean It is a sign and seal of Gods great blessings and so it is of our promise to him of Obedience upon condition then that we own this Covenant when we understand it and keep our selves strictly and religiously to the terms of it We may say of these waters as Euripides of the sea upon the accasion of Plato's recovery by the salt waters in Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They wash away and heal all the evil diseases of men Vitruvi L. 8. cap. 3. But otherwise they will be like some waters in Thrace in which whosoever washes he certainly dies I have therefore adventured to § 7 expose to the world a few of my green and unconcocted thoughts concerning this Argument and to represent what I conceive to be the true meaning of Baptism which is nothing different from the sense of the Church of God There are a multitude of Books I know in the world and men complain of it they that do may let this alone and of others I may easily obtain a pardon for putting my self into the crowd since I take up but a little room and make but a very short stop in their passage to better Authors Others it may be said might have been better allowed to have handled this matter I think so too and believe there are great numbers that understand better and multitudes that understand as much and some that can inlarge these things that are here said into more perspicuous and profitable discourses and I dare not so much as flatter my self that I am able to lead the way to any of them if I may provoke them to do better I think my labour well bestowed I am sensible that the images of truth make but a weak and waterish impression upon my mind but they may draw more lively pictures of themselves upon other souls and let them give us a Copy of their conceptions § 8 Since the preaching of this Sermon it came so strongly into my mind by taking notice of some discourses abroad to insert something of Confirmation that I could not well put away those thoughts and so I have let them take their place in the body of the Sermon by way of perswasion to a more hearty and open owning of the baptismal Covenant Thereby men will ascend from Water unto Wine from a weak estate to a more strong and manly constitution and God will not only sprinkle clean water upon their faces but even lay his hands upon their heads thereby taking more firm hold of them and apprehending them for his own and conferring his blessings more abundantly on them now that they put themselves into his hands to be directed and ruled in all things by him as those that are wholly in his power I dare not keep you any longer in the entry for fear you grow weary and loth to step over the Threshold of the next
leaf and look into the main Building And there I shall not stay your eyes long for my furniture being little it was not wisdom to make the house too wide and spacious S. P. ACTS 16.33 ult And was baptized he and all his straightway CHrist having given a Command to his Apostles to go and teach or disciple all Nations Mat. 28.19 baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost We find in this story of their Acts wherein some of their travels are related that as soon as they had perswaded any persons to be Christians immediately they received them into their fellowship by this Ceremony of washing them with water A Truth which among all the Disputes about Baptism one would think should never have been quarrelled yet there have been those busie phansies in the world that have called this into Question August de haeres 46. 59. and would perswade us that our Saviour in those words intended not any such washing with water and no other Baptism is to be owned but that of the Spirit But so men may say if they please that when Philip and the Eunuch went into the water Act. 8.38 he baptized him with fire If the Apostles could understand our Saviours meaning those men are sufficiently refuted by their practise for though our Saviour Baptized none that we read of but with the Spirit and the Papists will have a hard task to obtain this preheminence for Peter that he received the Baptism of water at Christs hands yet it will be needless pains to prove that his Apostles and their Successors after them did initiate and admit Disciples in that manner But notwithstanding this there are others that left the world should be quiet do start a new Question Whether that Command of our Lords extended any further then to the first proselyting of the Nations or ought now to be followed among Christian people who might have spared the labour of making such a doubt unless they could give us some ground to think that that part of their Commission was after revoked or then limited to such a time and likwise solidly expound those following words I am with you alwayes to the end of the world and shew us why the work of the new birth which the Apostle makes the signification of Baptism is not now as well as then to be shadowed and represented Yet others will not let their wits be at rest but make a further inquiry Whether the words of our Saviour include in them a Command or only a Permission because he saith only Baptizing not Baptize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though the constant practise of the Apostles in this Book related and of the Church afterward might well have been sufficient to have silenced these thoughts without any further dispute and the following words likewise Teaching them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 20. c. would have told such men that their inquiry was needless unless it can be thought that because he doth not say Go teach we may chuse whether we will give any further instruction to our people Taking it therefore for granted without engaging my self in such questions that the words now read do speak of Baptism by water still to be retained in the Church of God you may observe in them these three things 1. A Rite or Ceremony used and that is Baptism or washing with Water 2. The persons baptized The Jaylor and all his 3. The time of its Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straight-way instantly at that hour of the night that the foregoing story was acted without any further delay From which I am invited to treat of three things First Of the Use and Intention of Baptism Secondly Of the qualities or dispositions of those that receive it Thirdly Of the time that is required to render them persons fitly qualified to receive it For the Explication of the first we need find no fault with the common language that saith Baptism in its general notion is an outward visible sign and seal of some inward and invisible grace and favour conveyed and made over thereby unto us But to difference it from the other Sacrament we must enquire what that grace favour and priviledge is and shew how it doth signifie and seal it between God and us And upon due consideration I believe we shall find that to be Baptized expresseth something on our part and something on Gods both which put together make it a foederal Rite whereby we and God enter into a Covenant and Agreement together and mutually engage to the performance of several things which are all to our behoof and benefit 1. As we present our selves to the Minister of this Sacrament and receive it so it expresses something done by us and then 2. As the Minister Gods Deputy or Embassadour doth receive us and wash us with this water by the Authority and into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost so it expresseth something done by God Both which it concerns us for the securing of our duty and our comfort also to be acquainted withall and therefore I shall shew you 1. What is the true meaning and intent of it on the part of the person baptized who offers himself or is offered to receive it which I will lay before you in these particulars First In the general notion of it it is a profession of a Religion whereinto we enter and to which we engage to be faithfull and constant Disciples It is a Ceremony whereby Proselytes are made and all that use it do thereby come into a new way and state forsaking all their old perswasions practises and relations wherein they were born and bred that are contrary to and inconsistent with these new Ingagements It is well observed by St. August In nullum nomen relâ—gionis seu vâ—râ—m sâ—u fâ—lsum coâ—gâ—tari pâ—ssant hâ—â—inâ—s niâ—â— al quo Signaculorum seu Sacramentorum visib lium Conoâ—tâ—o â—oll gâ—atur adv Faust l. 19. cap. 11. That men can be associated together in no Religion whether true or false unless they be combined by the common tie of some visible signs and Sacraments of their profession Which the world hath found by so long experience to be true that I need not be carefull to prove it The Jews it is manifest were differenced from others by Circumcision and as their Doctors tell us entred into Covenant with God not only by it but by Baptism also together with a sacrifice unto him And when a Heathen would become a Jew and undertake their Religion See Puxtorf Lex Rab. vocab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so repose himself as their phrase is under the wings of the divine Majesty he was to be circumcised baptized and offer Sacrifice for which Maimon as sundry Learned men observe out of him De prohibito congressu brings no other proof but that Num. 15.15 As ye are so shall the stranger be so supposing as a thing
threatningâ— of Christ which in baptism he promised to believe as well as any other Word of God shall all fall upon his head and he shall be cast into a lake indeed but it is a lake burning with fire and brimstone Rev. â—â— 8 Better had it been for such an one if he had been drowned in the font or entred into the gates of death when he entred into the gates of the Church it had been better for him if he had been branded with a hot iron in his fore-head or scalding oil had been poured upon his face when it was washed with water in the name of Christ The flames of hell shall eternally burn and consume without any consumption that filthy soul whose dirt the waters of Baptism and the fires of the holy Ghost could not fetcht out and scour away And if any complain of their weakness Vse 3. THirdly Here is matter of comfort to us We are in a Covenant of Grace there is a Redemption for us if we have a mind to be delivered we have assurance of the assistance of the Holy Ghost and if we be sincerely watchfull and diligent he will not because of our failings take away his Holy Spirit from us Through the Spirit of Christ we shall be able to do valiantly nothing shall be too hard to overcome but we shall tread all our enemies under our feet Let us march out therefore as the Souldiers of Christ carrying his Cross in our Banners let us profess and declare that we are crucified to the world that we are buried with Christ in Baptism R 〈◊〉 6 and reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto sin But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yield ye your members as Instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of Righteousness unto God For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace It is a shame now to be overcome when you serve under such a Captain and have Heaven on your side and have received the promise of the holy Ghost Is there no power in the Spirit of God or is not God as good as his word Will not he give us what he hath promised to make us to vanquish all his enemies O do not speak such evil things of God by doing any evil Do not disgrace your profession nor bring a dishonour upon your Lord by letting every temptation use you at its pleasure Do not suffer every lust to foil and worst you as if you were Turks and Infidels and had none of the mark or badge of God upon you and as if your Baptism was of no more avail to you then the washing of your hands But first resolve that all these lusts of the flesh must be overcome and then conclude that they may Perswade your selves that God is with you and that he hath appointed no ineffectual Rites no bare shadows no beggerly Ceremonies and cold Formalities in the Religion of Christ but that if you use your Diligence and pray continually you shall find the holy Ghost to accompany you and that you are born again not of water only but of the Spirit and shall finally inherit eternal life 4. That you may receive greater supplies of the spirit promised and be more ingaged to your duty labour fully to understand your vow and Covenant and then come and openly own it professing you will be faithfull to it that so you may be admitted to nearer familiarity with God Let me prevail with all young persons who are yet in the gate of the Church and have proceeded no further then to be baptized in their Infancy and perhaps to be catechized in the principles of Religion to spend a few thoughts upon this which I propound For though outward Baptism which is the visible sign and seal of the Covenant 1 Pet. 3.21 is not to be renewed yet the Answer of a good conscience wherein the inward Baptism doth consist may and ought to be re-iterated by a personal resumption and ratification of that vow which was made for us in our infant years And no man is to be reputed a compleat member of the Church untill he do own his Ingagements and openly profess that he will stand to the conditions of the Covenant and be a Disciple of Christ If Baptism did at first admit us into the injoyment of many priviledges surely we shall receive more of the blessings of it when we do seriously reflect upon it and ingage our hearts by our own free consent to God because then we begin more solemnly to perform the conditions that God requireth of us When I first entred upon a charge of souls I could think of no course so antiently attested unto so reasonable in it self and so likely to be effectual for mens good so free likewise from the just exceptions of any party as to propose this to my people that all those who had not yet been communicated should freely and heartily in the presence of those who were assembled at any time to partake of the Lords Supper profess to be sincere and constant in their baptismal Covenant and declare themselves enemies to the Devil the world and the flesh And I will take occasion here to profess that I am heartily glad that Mr. Hanmer hath proposed this and Mr. Baxter so earnestly pressed it upon the whole Nation after whose pious and learned endeavours let me contribute my little Mite to the urging those into whose hands this small Treatise shall come that they would not refuse it This Christian Duty hath long passed under the name of Confirmation which is a word full and significant of the thing that I. would express and consists of two parts First That a person do undertake in his own name every part of the vow made by others for him in Baptism and so personally consent unto Christ to be wholly his according to that agreement And so it is an Act of Confirmation on our part because we do hereby further ratifie and establish that contract which is between God and us and by confessing of it to be valid and good bind our selves faster still to him whose we were before The second part of it is A receiving of Gods Blessing and Grace by the Ministers hands and holy prayers to strengthen us to perform our Engagement and make good our word and faith which we have plighted unto God which many have taken to be the meaning of that place (*) Beside sundry of the Antients Calvin Beza Piscator Hâ—nnius Iâ—yricus Tossanus G ynaeus do so expound it See also Hyperius and Buâ—ling In loc who wish for the restoring of it in those Churches from which it had been banished Heb. 6.4 Where after Baptism follows laying on of hands which