I come to conclude against the Anabaptists Our Lord saith to Nicodeâ—â—us Joh. III. 3. Verily verily I say unto thee unlesse a man be born again hee cannot seâ— the Kingdom of God And what this new birth is he setteth forth in answering that impertinent question which Nicodemus not understanding him makes how a man should come out of his Mothers belly the second time Verily verily I say unto thee unlesse a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Here I will grant the Anabaptists that the Sacrament of Baptism is not instituted by these words but by the act of our Lord after his Resurrection when he gives his Apostles their Commission Go make Disciples all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you Mar. XXVIII 18. But for reasons which perhaps they will not thank me for though they be not able to refute As yet when this discourse was held it was not declared to all that took our Lord for a Prophet that he was the Sonne of God Nicodemus himselfe that comes to him as a Prophet saying Master we know thou art a Prophet come from God For no man could do the works that thou dost unlesse God were with him If he go away instructed that the same which obliges him to take our Lord Christ for a Prophet concludes him to be the Christ the Son of God he is beholden to the freedom of our Lord in declaring to him the pretense of his coming by this discourse But for the purpose of sending the Holy Ghost it cannot be imagined that it was declared from the beginning of our Lords preaching who reveals not the intent of his death to his Apostles till he grew towards the time of it The priviledge of sending the Holy Ghost being part of that state to which he was to be exalted rising from death How then can it be imagined that our Lord should from the beginning of his preaching appoint all to be baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the Sacrament of Baptism that makes us Christians Certainly it is not the same thing for John to baptize in the name of him that should come as for the Apostles in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Unlesse we think that all the people of God who expected a Messias expected him to be the Son of God which Christians worship our Lord Christ for and they crucified him for pretending to be There is therefore no cause why we should offer that violence to the Scripture Acts XXX 4. 5. John indeed baptized the baptism of repentance saying to the people that they were to believe in him that came after him that is in Christ Jesus And hearing this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus which I showed you is offered by those that would have it to signifie That those who were baptized by Iohn Baptist were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus For other answers that are devised to avoid to clear a Scripture I count them not worth the refuting so evidenâ—ly they force the express sense of the words And among them none more unreasonable thâ—n that which saith that these men were not indeed baptized with the baptism of Iohn though they thought they were And that S. Paul when he sayes John indeed baptized with water saying to the people that they should believe in him that was to come even in Christ Iesus argues and perswades them that they were not indeed baptized with the Baptism of Iohn though they thought they were For of all things in the world could men be deceived to think that they professed that which the Baptism of Iohn must oblige them to professe and did not Nor can it be said with any appearance of truth that Iohn baptizing unto repentance those whom he sends for the means of salvation for the future to him that was to come did baptize in the Name of the Lord Jesus in as much as it is necessary to be said that the Apostles when they baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Acts II. 38. VIII 16. X. 48. did sufficiently intimate the name of the Father whose Son they preached our Lord to be and also of the Holy Ghost whom our Lord had promised to those that are baptized as Irenaeus so long since hath exquisitely cleared the difficulty how they observed their Commission of baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Baptizing as S. Luke reports in the Name of the Lord Jesus But of Iohn the Baptist it is said Ioh. I. 29-34 That the morrow after he baptized our Lord he declared him to be the man that was to come after him in whose name he had baptized that he knew him not but came to declare him and that by the coming down of the Dove upon him it was revealed to him that he should know our Lord to be the man that came to Baptize with the Holy Ghost Whereby it appeareth that he cannot be thought to have baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus as that importeth as much as baptizing in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost For though it is evident that Iohn knew our Lord when he came to be baptized that he knew him to be in the world from the time that he began to preach and that he should baptize with the Holy Ghost Yet not knowing the man from the time that he began to baptize how could he baptize in his name and as the Son of God that was to give the Holy Ghost before our Lord himselfe had preached and declared upon what terms it was to come I suppose it is easie enough to distinguish between baptizing in the name of Christ and baptizing with an intent of sending them whom he baptized to Christ to be baptized with the Holy Ghost Neither is this to say that Iohns Baptism availed not to remission of sinnes for the time that it was on foot by Gods appointment when as we acknowledge that dispensation of Grace which was intimated and conveyed by the Law to have been the means to bring some to the righteousnesse of faith How much more the twilight of the Gospel under John the Baptist But that before the Covenant of Grace was published by the preaching of our Lord and inacted on Gods part by his death upon the Crosse or rather by raising him from death it was not time to determine that act by which God intended that profession which he requires for the condition of it should be solemnized and celebrated Therefore there came water and blood out of our Lords side upon the Cross to intimate the ground upon which this Sacrament should be in force for the future And if this be the condition
death in the profession of Christianity left no doubt in the mind of any Christian whether they should be saved or not suffering for Christ before they were baptized But because those who might have had means and opportunity to be baptized at such times and upon such occasions as the rules and customes of the Church furnished by neglecting the same ministred some ground to presume that they had not in them that resolution to undergo the Crosse of Christ in and for the performance of that which baptisin undertakes in consideration whereof he grants those promises which his Gospel proclaimeth And having said this I conceive I need say no more to show the necessity of Baptism according to the doctrine and practise of the whole Church which I proved afore by the Scriptures For if those who professed to believe Christianity and had resolved to enter into that estate and life which it required came under a doubtfull repute as to their salvation among Christians where they were intercepted by death before they were Christened by baptism well may the unavoydable casualties of mortality dispense in the necessity of an act the means whereof may depend upon something else beside his will that wants it But it appears therefore a necessary ingredient in the condition which qualifies for the promises of the Gospel when the desire of having it if it were possible appears absolutely undispensable And this shall save me the labour of producing the testimonies of Church Writers to evidence the sense thereof in all ages For the sense of the Church cannot be so effectually evidenced by the sayings of particular persons of what authority soever in their own Churches as it is evident by the customs really in force which it appeareth that particular persons held themselves obliged to follow And therefore to the opinions presently on foot Of the Socinians That baptisme was necessary under the Apostles to profess that purity of life which Christianity promiseth when men were converted from Jews or Gentiles to Christians but indifferent for those that wear that profession by being born and brought up under Christian parents And of some Enthusiasts among us who think it a meer mistake to baptize with water into Christianity the Baptism of John being the Baptism of water but the Baptism of the Holy Ghost the Baptism of Christ of which Opinions you shall hear more by and by I say to these opinions it shall serve my turn to say That the necessity of the Baptism of Water stands evidenced by the same means that convince the World of the truth of Christianity To wit by the Scriptures hitherto alledged and by the consent of all Christians For it will be impossible to alledge not only any Writer that hath been allowed and credited by the Church but any man that hath pass'd for a Christian in the Church that ever undertook to perswade himselfe or any man else to presume that he should be saved neglecting Baptism For what reason and upon what ground I leave to those that shall neglect S. Peters distinction hitherto pleaded to alledge As for the next point which is the manner of baptizing from the circumstances and ceremonies of it I shall but relate here what I alledged out of S. Peter in the beginning of the solemn questions propounded of course to those that demanded Baptism whether they did believe the truth of Christianity whether they would undertake to profess it and to fight against the flesh the World and the Divel for the observing of it whether he desired to be baptized upon these terms Neither shall I need to alledge the testimonies of Church-Writers for the use of the same ceremony which at this day is in force in the Church of England And though there be those that are liberall enough in censuring it as impertinent now that all are baptized Infants and though this be not the place to consider such exceptions yet I will here take notice how the contract thus executed concerns â—he salvation of Christians that so it may be judged how it concerns the Office of Baptism that what so concerns the salvation of Christians be expressed in it To the same purpose I will here alledge the putting on of white robes after Baptisin Whereupon the Sunday after Easter-day is still called Dominica in Albis The Lords day in Whites which first they had put on at Easter when they were baptized which custome seemeth to have been in use in the Church when S. Paul said Rom. XIII 14. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lusts thereof And Gal. III. 27. As many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ And Joh. IV. 22. 24. To put off the old man and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse And Col. 3. 10. Having put off the old man with his actions and put on the new man that is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of him that made him For all these expressions seem to be allusions to that which they saw done and practised before their eyes But those that yield not so much cannot refuse to grant that the custome was taken up by the Church to signifie the profession of that which the Apostle injoyneth all Christians in those that were baptized The same thing signified by signing those that were baptized with the sign of the Crosse Which S. Augustine expounds very well by the custome of the Roman Empire to set a mark on the bodies of those that were listed Souldiers and upon slaves by which they might be known and brought back if they should run away or depart from their colours For though the sign of the Crosse made upon him that is baptized remain not visible upon him yet being done publickly and solemnly and as S. Paul saith of Timothy under many witnesses he is notwithstanding to be challenged by it of what he undertooke And he that observes this mark to be called by the ancient Church sigillum the signe or seal must think of S. Pauls words 2 Cor. I. 21 22. But he that establisheth us with you into Christ and anointeth us is God who hath also signed us and put the earnest of his Spirit into our hearts And Ephes I. 13. In whom also having believed ye were signed with the Holy Spirit of Promise And IV. 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom ye are signed to the day of Redemption I say he must think of these words of S. Paul as I said of those concerning the white robes of them them that were baptized That they are either allusions to that which men saw done by the appointment of the Apostles or occasions of taking up these ceremonies by the primitive Church I might here argue from the custom of Vndertakers which now are called Godfathers and Godmothers to the same purpose For if it were requisite that the Church should be secured
them qualified for Gods promises as fitly as men overtaken in sin can be And is not this that which Baptism supposeth when S. Peter saith Acts II. 38. Repent and be baptixed every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto remissin of sins The Baptism of John indeed was the Baptism of Repentance unto remission of sins Mat III. 11. Mark I. 4. Luke III. 3. But our Saviours theame as well as John Baptists when they began to preach was Repent and believe the Gospel Or Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand Mark I. 15. Mat. III. 2. IV. 17. Therefore the Baptism of Christ as well as the Baptism of John presupposeth repentance only the promise of the Holy Ghost is proper to the Baptism of Christ because that remission of sins which Johns Baptism gave presupposed not the Covenant of Grace inacted and published And therefore it is no marvell that the Baptism of John is called The Baptism of water when our Lord saith Acts I. 5. John indeed baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost before many dayes For it will not follow any more that therefore the Baptism of water is not Christs Baptism then it will follow the Baptism of John was not the Baptism of repentance to remission of sinnes because Christs Baptism was so And because it had the promise of the Holy Ghost which Johns had not It is then to be considered that the repentance of him that hath been qualified for the Gospel promises may be only conversion from some particular sin supposing one sin of that weight as to void that title But the repentance of him that is wholly enemy to God such as the Gospel declareth Jews and Gentiles to be as you find by S. Paul in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans necessarily signifieth conversion from all sin to all righteousnesse The repentance therefore of him who finding himselfe overtaken in sin hath recourse to Christianity for the cure of it being necessarily a motion from all sin the term wherein it resteth being Christianity is necessarily a resolution of all righteousnesse for the future Which is all that my position demandeth only this that whereas the profession of this resolution is also required therefore it be not thought sufficient to professe for Christianity that which every man that readeth and believeth the Scriptures may take to be Christianity but that which the Church being trusted with the maintenance of that Rule the profession whereof is required to salvation by the Gospel hath alwayes required to be professed of them who are baptized into the Church And that the condition without this particular is not complete may further appear by assuming for granted that which hath here been proved by the premises wherein I have demonstrated that the first Covenant which God by Moses made with the Children of Israel was and was intended by God to be the figure of the second Covenant which by our Lord Christ he hath established for all that will embrace it by undertaking Christianity The correspondence between them consisting in this That as God by the first tendered them the happinesse of the Land of Promise upon condition of governing themselves according to the Law which he gave them by Moses So by the second he tenders everlasting happinesse in the world to come to all those that shall undertake to professe the faith of Christ and live according to that which he hath taught Which being no more questionable then it can be questioned by those who professe themselves Christians whether or no the New Testament was intended and designed by the Old Whether Moses writ of Christ or not Whether Judaisme was to make way or to give place to Christianity or not And seeing it can no more be questioned whether or no the Jews were to take upon them the Law of God as their King for the condition upon which they were to expect the Land of Promise It is plaine there wants nothing that can be required duly to inferre that the condition the undertaking whereof intitles Christians to life everlasting is the profession of Christianity And the performance thereof that which is rewarded by the performance of all the promises which the Gospel tenders as the performance of the Law was that which secured the Israelites in the possession of the Land of Promise against their enemies round about Now we know that when the Covenant of God with Abraham for the Land of Promise came to be limited as to the condition required by God to the law of Moses that Circumcision which God had required of all Abrahams seed became a condition limiting the same to Israraelites the want whereof at eight dayes old was a forfeiture of that promise For The waters of the Red Sea which saved them and drowned the Aegyptians the Cloud that overshadowed them the Manna which they eate and the Waters of the Rock which they drank though according to S. Paul Sacraments answerable to the Sacraments of the Church were so but for the time of their travel through the Wildernesse If therefore by virtue of these the Israelites were intitled to the Land of Promise which of Circumcision is evident then must the Sacrament of Baptisme be necessarily requisite to the right of a Christian in the heavenly Inheritance This is the first reason drawn from that which seemes most evident in Christianity and that which I have been able to inferre and to premise from the same But I will adde another reason though it seems to be of the same nature with these that goe afore which comes from the necessity of Baptisme How much soever the licentiousnesse of this time may have debauched this wretched people from the Christianity which they were dedicated to by the Church of England no pretense of Socinians or Antinomians hath yet prevailed to make them believe that it is not necessary for men to be Christned that intend to be Christians There hath been indeed among the fruits of this blessed reformation a Pamphlet seen under the title of The doctrine of Baptismes the intent whereof is by a studied discourse to prove that it was never the intent of our Lord and his Apostles that the Baptisme of water should be used to make men Christians with Being a legal rite used by John the Baptist to continue so long as the use of Moses law was tolerated after the publishing of the Gospel but to cease therewithall when the Baptisme of the Spirit which is the Baptisme of Christ had succeeded the same This Pamphlet attributed to the Master of a Colledge in one of the Universities How that University will wash their hands of acknowledging as master of a Coledge one who cannot passe for a Christian among Christians supposing him the Author of this Book is not for this place to enquire This is visible that this opinion proceeds upon the common presumption of Antinomians Enthusiasts Quakers and the like that they have the
repaired but by the second coming of the second Adam and those helps of grace which by his obedience in the flesh he purchased to inable us to imbrace and undertake the condition proposed and to proceed in the performance of it to that which God accepteth In fine I have showed that the Sacrament of Baptism is that visible act which legally determineth and limiteth that profession of Christianity which intitleth to the Kingdom of God as consigning the profession of a Christian unto the hands of the Church by the means whereof Christianity is conveyed to us Therefore having showed these things I have no reason to think my selfe obliged to unty these Cobwebs thred by thred which I can sweep away at once with this besome Onely I will stand here so long as to admire whether the boldnesse or ignorance of these new dogmatists of new Religions be the greater when I see the baptism of John counted among the Ceremonies of the old Law for a foundation of this new doctrine of Baptisms never heard of by any Christian till this blessed Reformation was on foot which must be said à fortiori of that Baptism by water which our Lord Christ instituted by them that esteem it not the same Is it possible that any man that believes Christianity to be the Religion now in force to salvation by Gods appointment in opposition to Judaism should imagine that John the Baptist sent to declare our Lord to be the Christ that was sent of God to introduce it to the voiding of Moses Law should set on foot that Baptism whereby he prepared his Disciples for Christ or brought them to Christ by virtue of that Law which he intended to void Is it not essentiall to all the observations of the old Law that they be thought to be figurative of Christ to come at least supposing Christianity Can that Baptism figure Christ to come the intent whereof supposed him to be already come pretending to prepare his Disciples to receive him that was come But whether we say the Baptism of Christ was the same with Johns Baptism or another to say the Apostles of Christ when they baptize with water intended to figure that the Messias was coming from whom they had their commission to Baptize would be no lesse then a spice of madnesse I will also stay so long for Socinus as to answer that suspition which he draws from the words of S. Paul 1 Cor. I. 13 -17 to his purpose Is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized into the name of Paul I thank God that I baptized none of you but Criâ—pus and Gaius that no man say that I baptize in my oâ—n name yet I baptized also the house of Stephans further whither I baptized any I know not For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel If there were any thing in these words to intimate that the precept of baptizing is not of peâ—emptory and perpetuall necessity then must they signifie more then that it was not necessary that it should be done by S. Pauls own hands which is all they contain For he that would say that which was not necessary to be done by S. Paul was not necessary to be done would deserve to be laught at for his pains The question is then was any of them whom S. Paul baptized not left unbaptized or not If not how is it inferred that a man need not be baptized now because then they were not baptized by S. Paul If so how comes Socinus to grant that those who were first converted to Christianity were to be baptized And therefore before Socinus or any man go about to teach a new Religion it were fit for him to learn from the custome and practice of the Church that there is a difference between authority in ordering and ministery in executing And from the custome of the world that what a man does by his minister or officer that he does himselfe in Law though another do it in point of nature Which being supposed a little reason will serve to inferre that the Apostles being principal in the commission of the Gospell were to be imployed in the principall part of it that is in reducing men to Christianity And therefore so farre as that required their attendance inferiour offices which depended upon their order were to be left to the execution of their Ministers But to both these Heresies I say at once in the last place that they belie the very ground which they professe to be Christians The reason why the motives of faith cannot be doubted for truth is because all that are Christians have taken upon them their Christianity for a Law and entred into a communion and body of the Church to live and communicate in the faith and service of God according to certain Laws upon evidence that they come indeed from God Therefore that which all this body hath taken upon it to observe for Law from the beginning and constantly observed till Socinus his or the Antinomians time that belonged to the matter of Christianity as evidently as it is evident that the motives of Christianity recorded in the Scriptures are true which are therefore evidently true because it is evident that they have moved the world to receive Christianity which could not have been done had they been false For if all Christians could be deceived to believe that their Christianity requireth them to be Baptized if they will be saved why might they not be deceived to believe that those things were truly one which the Scripture alledgeth to evidence the Gospell to come from God when as indeed they were not Which is to say that who so pretends to void that which the whole Church observeth for a Law must not think that he can do it by showing that it is not commanded in the Scriptures until he can show that it is come into the Church not according to right having been from the beginning otherwise He must therefore first refuse all that I have said in the first Book to demonstrate that the Church alwaies was from the beginning one body governed by certain Laws originally proceeding from the Apostles by whom power was left it to determine and limite further all that the future estate thereof should require to be further determined for the maintaining of unity in the communion of the Church For granting this it will be impossible to show how so great a body should agree to receive that for a Law and that necessary to salvation as Baptism hath alwayes been esteemed which they received not for such at the beginning from our Lord and his Apostles CHAP. VII The ground of baptizing Infants Originall sinne though not instituted till Christ rose again No other cure for it Infants of Christians may be Disciples are holy The effect of Circumcision under the Law inferreth the effect of Baptism under the Gospel ANd these same are the reasons that I must have recourse to now that
it and the like blasphemies innumerable I know there are other Opinions of Justification by faith alone among those that professe it according to the senses which they may have of the nature of justifying faith and those perhaps of greater vogue than this which I have named Neither is it my intent to involve those that maintain Justification by faith alone in the blame which I charge the opinions hitherto described with The reason why I mention these opinions here is because they are in the extreams and therefore the mention of them seemed to propose the state of that question which I pretend to resolve For my way shall be in the first place to answer the question proposed concerning that disposition which the Covenant of Grace requireth the mind of him to be formally affected with that will be qualified for the promises which God therby tendreth Making this account that the treating of it will give us an overture into the consideration both of the effective cause that produceth it in those that have it and also of the meritorius cause that moveth God both originally to grant the said effective cause and consequently to accept the effect thereof for a competent qualification of them that have it for the promises which God by his Gospel tendreth those that receive it CHAP. II. Evidence what is the Condition of the Covenant of Grace The contract of Baptism The promise of the Holy Ghost annexed to Christs not to Johns Baptism Those are made Christs Disciples as Christians that take up his Crosse in Baptism The effects of Baptism according to the Apostles TO proceed to as brief and as clear a resolution of that point as I can propose I say That a sincere and resolute profession to undertake Christianity and to live according to it believing as our Lord Christ hath revealed and living as he hath taught consigned to God in the hands of his Church by the Sacrament of Baptism is that condition which the Covenant of Grace requireth to qualifie us for the promises which it tendreth This resolution is directly against the Antinomians and those that believe that a Christian is justified by the obedience of Christ imputed from everlasting to them whom he came to save Which indeed nullifieth the Covenant of Grace and converteth it to a meer promise on Gods part requiring no condition on mans part to be performed by him to qualifie hâ—m for it But this resolution opposing that conceit so roundly as positively to expresse the condition which I intend to maintain It will serve both against the conceit of Socinus that justifying faith is nothing but a firm beliefe that those who believed the Gospel purposing to live as God requireth are accepted by him as righteous Baptisme into the profession of Christianity not included But also of those that will have it to consist in the knowledge of our being predestinate to life from everlasting revealed by Gods word and sealed by his Spirit The proofs of it I will divide into three heads For consisting of so many branches as you see it cannot be expected that those Scriptures which shall serve to evidence it should every where expresse all the parts of it It is enough if the severall parts of it out of which the whole results be demonstrable by severall ranks of Scriptures The first of those Scriptures that concern the profession which God by our Lord Christ requireth and he by his Apostles and the Church after them to the worlds end of them that will be qualified for the Promises which the Gospel tondreth which I put in the first place expresly because they seem to contain the most visible and express arguments that the principles and practice of Christianity can yield to inforce this truth The second shall be taken from the nature of faith and the attributes ascribed to it by the Scriptures in justifying saving regenerating or adopting us for sons giving us the spirit of Gods sons remitting our sins and the rest that we expect at Gods hands by vertue of his Covenant of Grace The last shall be from those passages of the Apostles chiefly and consequently of other Scriptures that they expound wherein it is denied that we are saved or justified by Works or by the Law but affirmed that we are saved and justified by Grace and by faith The due sence and intent whereof is the thread to guide us through the intricacies of this whole dispure Though when this is done I shall not wish any man to resolve himself in this or in any other point of the whole book till he hath gone through the whole and considered what resolution this generall infers to all other branches or dependances of it And therefore shall think he does nothing that goes about to disprove any part of it without shewing the resolution which his opinion infers to those other points or dependances that the Reader may have the choice before him which he thinks most consequent in reason to the principles of Christianity received on all sides I will begin with the words of the Apostle 1 Pet. III. 20 21. where this seems to be couched in terminis He saith that the long suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noe while the Arke was making in which a few that is eight souls were saved the antitype whereof Baptism now saveth us not the laying down of the filth of the flesh but the having of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ The water of Baptism saveth us through the temtations of the World as they were saved through the deluge And what can be done more then to save us let no man think to defeat this by striving about words that to save and to justifie is not the same If Bapâ—ism import the condition of the Covenant of Grace which saveth us our justification will necessarily be wrapt up in the same packet though to justifie and to save be severall conceits And is it not strange that any man should be perswaded that there is nothing said or meant of the Baptism of water in all this passage but of the Baptism of the Spirit as that which moves a good conscience to professe Christianity For how can Baptism by the Holy Ghost and fire be the antitype of the waters of the deluge as the Baptism of water is and as that Baptism which the Apostle speaks of is The correspondence between the types of the Old and the antitypes of the New Testament by vertue of the premises consists in the correspondence between the temporall deliverance of that time and the spirituall deliverance of this both in order to the everlasting deliverance of the World to come Now it is certain that the visible Ceremony of Baptism signifies the temptations of this World out of which we escape by the means of that Sacrament as he that is baptized rises out of the water again According to that of the Psalm LXIX 1 15. Save me O God
Gospel What room is there left so to interpret and understand Justificatification by Faith alone or the nature of that Faith which alone justifieth that a man may be thought to be ingrafted into Christ by a living faith before and without being baptized He that admitteth S. Peters distinction shall not need to marvel that God should appoint the cleansing of the soul to depend upon the washing of the body seeing the profession of true Christianity obliging him that is baptized both to God and to his Church the power of baptizing into which is the power of remitting sins by the keys of the Church as I proved in due place by the same appointment annexed to the same And upon this ground it is that S. Paul says 1 Tim. V. 8. that he who provides not for his own especially for his Family hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel Because that Christianity to which he is tied by his baptism obliges him to it And the Apostles Jude 4. 2. Pet. II. II. affirm that the Gnosticks did deny the Lord Jesus Christ that bought them who certainly renounced not the profession of Christians which they counterfeited but lived not according to it Whereupon we read in S. Paul of those that retain a fashion of godlinesse but deny the power of it 2 Tim. III. 5. And that professe to know God doubtlesse as Christians if of Titus his charge but deny it by their works Titus I. 16. CHAP. III. The exhortations of the Apostles that are drawn from the patterns of the Old Testament suppose the same How the Sacraments of the Old and New Testament are the same how not the same How the New Testament and the New Covenant are both one The free-will of man acteth the same part in dealing about the New-Covenant as about the Old The Gospel a Law BEsides all this I argue the same from the Old Testament as the passages of it are imployed and expounded by our Lord and his Apostles in the New S. Paul inforceth the observing and fulfilling of our Christian profession specially not to communicate in the worship of Idols thus 1 Cor. X. 6. 11. These things came to passe for patterns to us that we should not lust for evil things as they also lusted Nor be Idolaters as some of them As it is written The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play Nor go a whoring as some of them did and fell in one day three and twenty thousand Nor tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by Serpents Nor murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer Now all these things happenned to them for figures and are written for our warning on whom the ends of the world are come If these things fell out to the Fathers that they might be figures for Christians and that they were punished for transgressing the Covenant which they had made with God is it not manifest that the punishments which the Apostle threatneth Christians with must come for transgressing the second Covenant of Grace which the Gospel introduceth consider again the Apostles argument Hebr. III. 7-13 Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as at the provocation in the day of temptation in the wildernesse where your Fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years wherefore I was wroth with that generation and said They always erre in heart and know not my wayes So that I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest take heed brethren that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbeliefe in departing from the living God But exhort one another every day while it is called to day that none of you be hardned with the deceit of sin It is manifest that his intent is to warn them of the crime of Apostasie in renouncing Christianity for the persecutions which the Jewes then followed them with as the whole Epistle witnesseth and here the very terms of an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God do evidence And therefore in the end of the Chapter Who did he swear should not enter into his rest but those that were disobedient And we see they could not enter for unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that were disobedient to Gods Law which they had plighted their Faith to keep could not enter into his rest of the Land of Promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for unbelief or unfaithfulnesse whether you will Therefore they that depart from God having undertaken the profession of Christianity shall not enter into his everlasting rest of the Kingdome of Heaven whether for unbelief or unfaithfulnesse For as they are disloyall to their Promise so by Apostasie they fall into the condition of Infidels Can this Argument proceed upon any other terms And proceeding upon these doth it not suppose an ingagement claiming loyalty Is not the rest of Christians which he mentioneth as clearly the Kingdom of Heaven as the rest whereof the Psalm speaks was the Land of promise wherefore he inferreth upon the words quoted For we are become partakers of Christ if we hold the ground of our confidence or the principle of our expectation firm to the end The ground of a Christians confidence or that from whence his expectation of the promise commences which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being nothing else but the condition which he undertaketh upon supposition of Gods promise Wherefore S. Paul thus inferreth the warning afore rehearsed 1 Cor. X 1 -5 Now I would not have you ignorant Brethren that our Fathers were all under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea and all were baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and all ate the same spirituall meat and drank the same spirituall drink For they drank of the spirituall Rock that followed them now the Rock was Christ But with most of them God was not well pleased For they were felled in the Wildernesse Did you ever read in the Old Testament that the Israelites were baptized because they passed the Sea under the Cloud without a drop of water to wet them with But this we read that God by Moses had delivered them and thereupon they agree to leave Aegypt under his conduct Hereupon infucs the drowning of their enemies in the red Sea while they are protected thereby with the Cloud also over their heads This therefore was the beginning of that Peoples ingagement to God under the conduct of Moses Which though by by they departed from at Marah and elsewhere mutinying against Moses yet being reconciled to God by his patience and goodness in fulfilling their desires they also tooke upon themselves to obey him and to keep the the Sabbath Exod. XV. 25 26. XVI 27 28 29. Untill being come to Monnt Sinai they received the Decalogue and afterward the whole Law as it was renewed by
Moses a little before his death though in effect they had submitted to whatsoever should be required in Gods name by Moses when they passed the red Sea under his conduct Only it is to be observed that the Covenant of Circumcision which God had made with Abraham when he gave him the Land of Promise remained for their Title to it when the promise thereof became limited by the Law Which limitation because they submitted to by leaving Aegypt under the conduct of Moses and being shadowed by the Cloud saw their enemies drowned in the red Sea therefore are they elegantly said by S. Paul to be baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea For if being redeemed from the Aegypt of this world we undertake to leave it under the conduct of our Lord Christ If hereupon our sins be drowned in the waters of Baptism Were not they baptized in the same sense as we passe the red Sea at our comming out of Aegypt But both upon supposition of the correspondence between the two Testaments without which all this argument could neither have force nor relish And therefore I cannot but admire to see men learned in the Scriptures to maintain by this place that the Sacraments of the Old Testament are the same with the Sacraments of the New Not distinguishing whether immediatly or by way of correspondence For if you make the Kingdom of Heaven and the Land of Promise all a thing then is Baptism and the passage of the red Sea all one But then it will be all one to believe in Christ and to submit to his conduct to Paradise as to believe in Moses as the Israelites did hereupon Exod. XIV 31. and to put themselves under his conduct to the Land of Promise Which is my Argument But if setting aside the correspondence you make their ingagement to God under Moses for obtaining the Land of promise one thing and our ingagement to God under Christ another Certainly the immediate assurance of this and the immediate assurance of that which by means of the correspondence becoms also the assurance of this are severall things And if there be between the Old and New Covenant that correspondence which makes that the figure of this they may as well be said to be one and the same and by consequence the Sacraments of them as a mans Picture is called by his name when seeing the Pictures of our Princes for example we say This is H. the eight and this Queen Elizabeth But to say that the Sacraments of the Old Law do immediately figure or assure the same thing which the Sacraments of the Gospel do is the same thing as to say the rest of the Land of Promise and the everlasting rest of the Kingdom of Heaven are both one and the same Let us now see by what right that is upon what ground S. Paul argues that concerning the Gospel from the words of Moses Deut. XIII 11 -14 which is manifestly said by him concerning the Law Rom. X. 6 -10 The righteousnesse that is of Faith saith thus Say not in thine heart who will ascend into Heaven To wit to bring down Christ Or who will go down into the deep To wit to bring up Christ from the dead But what saith it The Word is near thee in thy mouth and in thy heart That is the word of Faith which we Preach That if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart a man believes to righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to salvation The argument is this If Moses duly warn the Israelites that they have no excuse for not obeying the Law which he had put as it were in their mouths and into their hearts so plainly had he taught it them then cannot those that hear the Apostles Preach the Gospel excuse themselves in not obeying it being so plainly shewed That if they professe Christ with their mouths believing with the heart that God raised him from the dead they should be saved That this word of Faith is put as it were in their mouths and in their hearts Can this be made good to be Moses his meaning not supposing that the Spirit of God intended the Gospel by the Law Or can it be denied so to be supposing it If therefore the profession of an Israelite tie him to the Law of God given the Jews shall not the profession of a Christian tie him to the Law of God given the Jews shall not the profession of a Christian tie him to the Law of God given the Christians Shall not the professing of Christ which the Apostle speaks of be the undertaking of it For S. Paul by saying that they were baptized into Moses under the Cloud and in the Sea plainly sheweth that as their undertaking to march under the conduct of Moses towards the Land of Promise through the red Sea was rewarded by God with the drowning of their enemies and the overshadowing of the Cloud So our undertaking to follow Christ towards that Kingdom which he obtained by his Crosse is rewarded with the extinguishing of sin and the refreshing of the Holy Ghost in our travel to the world to come And therefore the ingagement of the second Covenant being inacted and settled upon us by the Sacrament of Baptism the promises of the Covenant must needs depend upon the same What else shall the name of a New Covenant or a New testament signifie if we will not have them to signifie nothing Some man perhaps may marvel whence it comes that the agreement between God and his ancient People being alwaies represented in the Old Testament in the nature and terms of a Covenant the New is by the Apostle proved to have the nature of the last Will and Tessament of our Lord Christ Hebr. IX 16 17. But if this Testament be also a Covenant as the same Apostle saith Hebr. VIII 9. He hath obtained a more excellent Ministery by how much he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which is inacted upon better promises there will be no cause to marvell The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ordinary Greek signifies no more than a mans last Will and Testament But in the use of the Jews that spoke Greek such as are the Apostles the translators of the Old Testament into Greek and others it fignisies also a Covenant If further it pleased God that our Lord Christ should die to assure us of everlasting life on his part which thereby he purchased obliging God on his part to give it to those that shall be found qualified for it well may the Apostle affirm that it is the last Will and Testament of him who died to make it irrevocable because mens Wills are not so till death But it containeth nevertheless a Covenant because men become not Sons of God by birth but by choice accepting the adoption which is tendred being
of penance failing of that which they had undertaken by it What is reformation in the Church and what is not is the subject of this present dispute therefore I cannot here grant that which some of the reformation may have done to be well done Otherwise I am secure no man will choke me with naming a Church that had no discipline of penance But that so it was I refer my self to that which I have said in the first book I demand here what is the ground and reason that so it must be For supposing the Keys of Gods Kingdom exercised in the first place in limiting the terms upon which baptisme is granted not in ministring of it Of necessity it followeth that in the second place it be seen and exercised in limiting the terms upon which those that have failed of that which they undertook at their Baptism may be restored to the visible communion of the Church upon presumption that they are restored to the invisible communion of those promises which the Gospel tendreth Not supposing this there is no reason why it should signifie any more than a scene acted upon a stage as it is taken to signifie by those who understand not this Lastly I will mention here the expresse Doctrine of the Church of England in the beginning of the Catechism declaring three things to have been undertaken in behalfe of him that is baptized That he shall forsake the Devil and all his works the pomp and vanities of this world and the evil desires of the flesh and not to be seduced by him either from believing the faith of Christ or from keeping Gods Commandements And again in the admonition to the Sureties after Baptism you must remember that it is your parts and duties to see that these Infants be taught so soon as they shall be able to learn what a solemn vow promise and profession they have made by you For all that come to Christianity believing what promises they get right to by it and being admitted to it uppon those terms there can remain no question upon what terms they attain the said promises Nor can or ought any Doctrine of that Church to what purpose soever cautioned be interpreted to the prejudice of that wherein the salvation of all consisteth But further in the Introduction to the Office of Baptism For asmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin and that our Saviour Christ saith None can enter into the Kingdome of God except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost I beseech you to call upon God that these children may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost and received into Christs holy Church and be made lively members of the same Proceeding to pray That they comming to thy holy baptisme may receive remission of their sins by their spirituall regeneration In the exhortation after the Gospel Doubt ye not therefore but earnestly believe that he will likewise favourably receive these present Infants that he will imbrace them with the arms of his mercie that he will give unto them the blessing of eternall life and make them partakers of his everlasting Kingdome Again Ye have heard also that our L. Jesus Christ hath promised in his Gospel to grant all these things that ye have praied for And after the Sacrament Seeing now that these children be regenerate and graffed in the bodie of Christs congregation And again We yield thee heartie thanks that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit to receive him for thine own child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy Congregation All this can leave no doubt of the communion of the Church of England with the whole Church in this point so nearly concerning the salvation of all Christians CHAP. V. The Preaching of our Lord and his Apostles evidenceth that some act of Mans free choice is the condition which it requireth The correspondence betwen the Old and New Testament inferreth the same So do the errors of Socinians and Antinomians concerning the necessity of Baptism Objections deferred THe whole tenor of the Scripture would afford matter of Argument to inforce this consequence But it shall be enough to have thus far pointed out the ground upon which the meaning of the rest is to proceed The reasons of this position from the principles of Christianity can be no other than those which have been touched upon occasion of treating the passages of Scripture hitherto alledged Yet to make the consequence still more evident I will here repeat first the consideration of Gods sending our Lord Christ to show the world sufficient motives why they should imbrace his Gospel as well as to teach them what it is and wherein it consisteth I will not here insist upon any supposition of the clear sufficience of the Scriptures or the necessity of Tradition besides the Scriptures But I will appeal to the common sense of all men to judge whether it be within the compass of reason that our Lord Christ should come to preach and to exhort men to acknowledge him to be come from God and to take up his Cross should show them reasons to believe that all which he preached is true that so they might be perswaded willingly to follow him Should give certain proofs of his rising again from death to inforce the same If men have no will no choice no freedom to do what he requires them or not to do it whether in other things they have it or not The same to be said of his Apostles and Disciples who were strange Creatures to expose their lives for a Warrant of the truth of what they said if they had not willingly and freely imbraced that profession themselves which they pretended to induce the world with the like freedome of choice to imbrace Thus far then we are assured by common sense that the condition required by the Covenant of Grace on our part must be some act of mans free choice the doing whereof at Gods demand must qualifie us for those promises which it tenders But this is not all that may appeare to common reason by the proceeding of our Lord and his Apostles The preaching of the Gospel-premises for a supposition upon which it proceedeth That mankind are become enemies unto God through sin and subjects of his wrath Proposing therepon the termes upon which they may be reconciled to God and intitled presently to and in due time possessed of everlasting happiness Suppose these terms purchased by the satisfaction of Christ though not granting it because all that call themselves Christians in the West do not is it possible to imagine that they who declare all mankind to be Gods enemies for sinne should have commission to declare them heires of his Kingdome not supposing them turned from sin to that righteousnesse which shall be as universally according to Gods will as their sin is against it As on the contrary supposing this do you not suppose
in the same regard of the flesh Which is therefore the common principle by meanes whereof true righteousnesse can take no place without the Gospel of Christ neither in Jews nor Gentiles And therefore that which follows in S. Pauls discourse Rom. VII 14 leaving for the present the dispute how farre it takes place in the regenerate in all opinions must take place in the unregenerate upon a principle common to all mankind Which is this that as the Law of God is spirituall so man is carnall and by consequence sold under sinne For in whom there is a contradiction to the Law of God and that righteousnesse which it requireth of man from the inward motions of the heart so soon as the understanding becoms convict that this it requireth â—n him there is unquestionably a principle of rebellion against God for something that he is inclined to desire for himselfe without and against all respect of God Now by the processe of S. Pauls discourse all Christians that admit S. Paul must allow that it supposeth such a principle in all that come to Christianity whether or no it inferre the like in those that are already come to it To wit not to do what they like but what they hate and approving the Law to be good that forbids it to do the evil which they would not do not the good which they are willing to do So that though there be a Law of God which in their judgement they approve yet there is another Law in their menbers which prevailes against it to captive them to the law of sinne Which law be it the custome of sinne as much as you will provided that this custome have passed over all mankinde all that the Gospel is tendred to Seeing it is the choice of no man no nation but common to Adams posterity it must needs be derived by propagation from his sinne whom his posterity not knowing could not purpose to imitate The words of S. Paul Gal. V. 16 17. are to the same purpose Now I say Walk in the spirit and fulfill not the desires of the flesh For the flesh Iusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are opposite to one another so that ye may not do that ye would For supposing the same dispute whether they be meant of Christians or of the unregenerate at least when Christianity is tendered when men are exhorted to imbrace it then is there in man a principle opposite to that which the spirit of God bringing the Gospel and brought by the Gospel requires And that inferrs the same consequence as afore But I must not forget the passage of S. Paul Ephes I. 1 2 3. And you being dead in trespasses and sins in which once ye walked according to the age of this world according to the Ruler of the dominion of the aire the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom all we also conversed once in the lusts of our flesh doing the desires of our flesh and thoughts and were by nature the children of wrath as the rest also For I must observe that Paul writing to a Church of Gentiles converted to be Christians himself of a Jew first concludeth the Gentiles to be under the power of Satan And then least it should be thought that the Jews of whom himselfe was one were invited to be Christians upon other termes he inferreth of them that we also among them Gentiles were by nature children of wrath Where it is plaine that S. Paul having expressed the sinnes of the Gentiles in which he saith they were dead and having aequalled the Jewes to them for walking according to their lusts cannot possibly be understood to speake of the common birth of all men when he saith we were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Whosoever shall peruse Epiphanius a Christian Writer but in such a stile as those that were not bred to the learning and elegance of the Greeks language may be supposed to use and therefore much resembling the stile of the Apostles and of very good use for them who would inwardly be acquainted with their language he shall find this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very ordinarily used by him not to signifie as commonly it doth by nature or by birth but truly and really Which signification how well it suits with the words of S. Paul when he saith We Jewes were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really the children of wrath as also the rest that were Gentiles Let any man that can judge of learning judge So I insist not upon this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but upon S. Pauls discourse and upon the ground hitherto perswaded I argue That Jewes as well as Gentiles being thus concluded under the necessity of the Gospel which is the grace of Christ the ground of it can be no other then the corruption of all the posterity of the first Adam which onely the second Adam can cure I come now to our Saviours instruction to Nicodemus when of a Doctor of the Jews he became first a disciple of Christ John III. 3 5 6. Verily verily I say unto thee Vnlesse a man be born againe that is of water and of the holy Ghost he cannot see or enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Marvaile not that I said to thee We must be born again And to the same effect S. John himself speaking in his own person of our Lord Christ John I. 12 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the children of God to wit to those that believe in his name Who were not born of blouds or of the will of the flesh but of God In these words I acknowledge a very considerable difficulty though perhaps it is not that which most men do forecast But I that do maintaine that the Baptisme of Christ was not instituted when these words were said having said already that the Baptisme of Christ is that to which the promise of remission of sinnes is allowed must needs find it hard to answer what our Lord meant when he said Vnlesse a man be born of water and of the holy Ghost For if the Sacrament of Baptisme were not then instituted when our Saviour spake these things to Nicodemus how shall we say that originall sinne is signified by these words wherein there is no mention of the cure of it Surely upon the ground afore setled that the second birth is by the holy Ghost and the holy Ghost given in consideration of the profession of Christianity by being baptized For this being setled it may remaine questionable what Nicodemus could then understand by the name of water but it cannot be questionable that there is no regeneration without the holy Ghost and no holy Ghost without that condition upon which the gift of the holy Ghost is due that is without Baptisme To
answer this question then which we are thus secured that it cannot be answered to the prejudice of the Church and the faith thereof It will be worth the while to compare the discourse of our Lord to the company that followed him to Capernaum in the sixth of John with this to Nicodemus For no man can be so unreasonable as to imagine that the Sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted by our Lord at the time of that discourse or by virtue of it of the institution whereof we have so due account in the Gospells before the suffering of our Lord. And yet it would be a strange thing to imagine that all that long discourse of our Lord should have no relation to that Sacrament Especially seeing it is so agreeable to all reason that our Lord should deliver unto his disciples the effect of his Gospel in such terms as suted best with the ceremony of that Sacrament wherewith he intended to establish the same For supposing the eating of the flesh of Christ crucified and the drinking of his blood to be the consideration of his passion tending to a resolution of taking up his Crosse we have in it the summe of Christianity consisting in the bearing of Christs Crosse that is in conforming our selves to his sufferings Report we this to the discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus and it will seem strange to me that any man should marvaile that when the Sacrament of Baptisme was not yet instituted our Lord should propose his Gospel to him upon this ground that no man born of the flesh could attain to the kingdome of God without being born againe of water and the holy Ghost Seeing that whether he understood or not what our Lord meant by water it is enough that the Spirit which reneweth the old birth of the flesh dependeth upon that which it signifies whatsoever it is Whether Nicodemus for the understanding of our Lord betake himselfe to the consideration of the several Baptismes of the law or to the Baptism of John the Baptist or to the Baptisme by which proselytes were made Jews which divers learned men have both declared and alleadged to the clearing of this difficulty to very good purpose certaine it is by the premises that the condition of salvation is the profession of Christianity by baptisme that the gift of the holy Ghost is not promised upon any other terms Therefore the Sacrament of Baptisme being instituted there is no assurance of salvation without it where the precept thereof takes place therefore the first birth of the flesh is liable to originall sinne CHAP. X. The Old Testament chargeth all men as well as the wicked to be sinfull from the wombe David complaineth of himselfe as born in sinne no lesse then the Wise man of the children of the Gentiles How Leviticall Lawes argue the same And temporall death under the Old Testament The book of Wisdome and the Greek Bible BUt it is requisite that we look into the Old Testament to see what arguments of the same will discover themselves there provided that we be advised not to expect the reasons upon which the necessity of the Gospel is grounded clearly expressed there where the Gospel it felf is but intimated Those that will not admit the Faith of the Church without such proofes as themselves require may with the Jewes disbelieve the Gospel if our Lord will not prove it by such miracles as they would have and when and where they would have them done But admitting the truth of Christianity upon such reasons as God hath made effectuall to subdue the world to it it will be consequently necessary that there should be arguments of originall sinne in the Old Testament but darker then those which have been and shall be propounded out of the New Certainly it deserveth much consideration that Moses saith Gen. VI. 5. And the Lord saw that great was the evil of man upon earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart onely evil all the day long And againe Gen. VIIâ— 8. Upon smelling Noahs sacrifice God saith to himself I will no more curse the earth for man because the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth For first God declares himselfe as a severe judge to take vengeance upon the sinnes of mankind by the deluge because the world was overflowed with sinne And afterwards either for the same reason because sinne cannot be washed out no not with the waters of a deluge so long as mankind is in being upon the earth or notwithstanding it he declares that he will curse the earth no more for mans sake Here it will be impossible to render a reason of that deluge of sinne which first brought a deluge of waters but could not overcome Gods goodnesse for mankind without a principle common to all mankind Such variety there is in their fansies such contrariety in the inclinations which they produce that it is impossible that they should agree in mischief were they meerly of Gods making And therefore Solomon having premised a hard word for women That seeking account one by one he had found a man of a thousand but a woman of all these he had not found inferreth Eccl. VII 29. Onely this behold I have found that God made man right but they have found out many devises Where I suppose he summoneth all men to inferre that between the uprightnesse in which God made man and the many crooked devises which they have found out to themselves there must something have fallen out to create a common principle to which those many inventions may be imputed But the act of Adam which passed away so soon as it was done had it left nothing behind it could have born the blame of it self alone and of nothing else When God commandeth the Israelites to put a fringe upon the corners of their garments he giveth this reason for it Numb XV. 39. And ye shall see it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them And not look after your hearts and your eyes after which ye commit whoredome Surely when he sets the lusts of their eyes and the imagination of their hearts in opposition to the commandment of God he justifies the words of our Lord Mat. X. 36. taken from the Prophet Mich. VII 6. to be fulfilled in every mans heart A mans enemies are those of his own house And Solomons taunt to the young man Eccles XI 9 Walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the light of thine eyes But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement Gods complaint by the Prophet Ezek. VI. 9. I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me and with their eyes which go a whoring after their Idols Leadeth us for the reason and ground of both to that of the Apostle 1 John II. 16. For whatsoever is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of
bloud as understanding themselves aright all Christians must needs do Unlesse wee can maintain that wee receive the body and blood of Christ not onely when wee receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist but also by receiving it there is no cause why our Lord should say This is my body this is bloud when hee delivered onely the sign of it to good and bad and therefore not out of any consideration of the quality of them that received it And what a grosse thing were it to say that our Savior took such care to leave his Church by the act of his last will a legacy which imports no more than that which they might at all times bestow upon themselves And let mee know whether the Church could not devise signes enow to renew the memory of Christs death or if that be likewise included to expresse their profession also of dying with Christ by bearing his Crosse if our Lords intent had been no more than to appoint a Ceremony that might serve to commemorate our Lords death or to expresse our own profession of conformity to the same For certainly they who make no more of it whom I said wee may therefore properly call Sacramentaries cannot assign any further effect of Gods grace for which it may have been instituted and yet make it a meer sign of Christs death or of our own profession to dy with Christ or for Christ But if I allow them that make it more than such a sign to have departed from a pessilent conceit and utterly destructive to Christianity I cannot allow them to speak things consequent to their own position when they will not have these words to signifie that the elements are the body and bloud of Christ when they are received but become so upon being received with living faith which will allow no more of the body and bloud of Christ to be in the Sacrament than out of it For the act of living faith importeth the eating and drinking of the flesh and bloud of Christ no lesse without the Sacrament than in it Certainly it is no such abstruse consequence no such farr fetched argument to inferr If this is my body this is my bloud signifies no more than this is the sign of my body and bloud then is the Sacrament of the Eucharist a meer sign of the body and bloud of Christ without any promise of spiritual grace Seeing that being now a Sacrament by being become a Sacrament it is become no more than a sign of the body and bloud of Christ which though a living faith spiritually eateth and drinketh when it receives the Sacrament yet should it have done no lesse without receiving the same I will here allege the discourse of our Lord to them that followed him to Capernaum John VI. 26-63 upon occasion of having been fed by the miracle of five loaves and a few little fishes Supposing that which any man of common sense must grant that it signifies no more than they that heard it could understand by it and that the Sacrament of the Eucharist not being then ordained they could not understand that hee spake of it but ought to understand him to speak of believing the Gospel and becoming Christians under the allegory of eating his flesh and drinking his bloud But when the Eucharist was instituted the correspondence of the ceremony thereof with the allegory which here hee discourseth is evidence enough that as well the promise which hee tendreth as the duty which hee requireth have their effect and accomplishment in and by the receiving of it I must here call you to minde that which I said of the Sacrament of Baptisme that when our Lord discoursed with Nicodemus of regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost John III. not having yet instituted the Sacrament of Baptisme in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost nor declared the promise of giving the Holy Ghost to them that should receive the same it must needs be thought that hee made way thereby to the introducing of that Ordinance the condition and promise whereof hee meant by the processe of his own and his Apostles doctrine further to limit and determine In like maner I must here insist and suppose that hee speaks not here immediately of eating and drinking his flesh and bloud in the Eucharist which his hearers could not then fore-tell that hee meant to ordain but that the action thereof being instituted with such correspondence to this discourse the intent of it may be and is to be argued from the same Now I have showed in due place that the sayings and doings of our Lord in the Gospel are mystical to signifie his kingdome of Glory to the which hee bringeth us through his kingdome of Grace So that when our Savior fed that great multitude with the loaves and the fishes which hee multiplied by miracle to the intent that they might not faint in following him and his doctrine it is manifest that hee intimateth thereby a promise of Grace to sustain us in our travail here till wee come to our Countrey of the Land of Promise When therefore hee proposeth the theme of this discourse saying Yee seek mee not because yee have seen miracles which serve to recommend my doctrine but because yee have eaten of the loaves and were filled Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for that which indures to life everlasting hee showes two things First that his flesh and bloud sustain us in our pilgrimage here because hee showes the Manna which the Fathers lived on in the Wildernesse to be a figure of it Secondly that they bring us to immortality and everlasting life in the world to come by expounding the figure to consist in this that as they were maintained by manna till they died so his new Israelites by his flesh and bloud by eating his flesh and drinking his bloud which hee was giving for the life of the world never to dye Now wherein the eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud consisteth hee showes by his answer to their question upon this Warning them to work for the meat that lasts unto everlasting life which hee tenders and not for that which perisheth The question is What shall wee do to work Gods works And the answer The work of God is this to believe in him whom hee hath sent I have showed in due place that the condition which makes the promises of the Gospel due is oâ—r Christianity to wit to professe the faith of Christ faithfully that is not in vain Therefore when our Lord saith The work of God is this To believe on him whom hee hath sent hee means this fidelity in professing Christianity For indeed who can imagine otherwise that hee should call the act of believing in Christ that work of God which Christ came to teach Gods people Hee then that considers the death of Christ that is to say the crucifying of his flesh and the pouring out of his bloud with that faith which supposes all
is admitted to Baptism is likewise invested with a right and due title to the promises of the Gospel remission of sâ—nnes and everlasting life As it may appear to all that hâ—ve contracted with the Church of England in Gods name that continuing in that which they professed and undertook on ttheir part at their Baptism they are â—ssured of no lesse by the Church And therefore this is and ought to be accounted that power of the Keyes by which men are admitted to the House of God which is his Church as S. Paul saith At least that part of it that is seen and exercised in this first office that the Church can minister to a Christian And seeing no man can challenge the priviledge of that communion to which he is admitted upon condition of that profession which Baptism supposed unlesse he proceed to live according to it it cannot seem strange that the same should be thought to be exercised in the celebration of the Eucharist as it is done with a purpose to communicate the Sacrament thereof to those that receive I shall desire any man that counts this sâ—râ—nge to consider that which I quoted even now out of Epiphanius That the Patriarch of the Jews at Tiberias being baptized by the Bishop put a considerable sum of Gold into his hand saying Offer for me For it is written Whatsoever ye bind on â—atrh shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye lose on earth shall be losed in heaven For so it follows in Epiphanius And when S. Cyprian blames or forbids offering up the names or offering up the Eucharist in the names of those that had fallen away from the Church in time of persecution till they were reconciled to the Church by Penance doth he not exercise the power of the Keyes in his hands by denying the benefit of those Prayers which the Eucharist is celebrated with to them who had forfeited their right to it by failing of that which by their baptism they undertook As on the other side whosoever the Eucharist is offered for that is whosoever hath a part in those Prayers which it is celebrated with is thereby declared loose by the Church upon supposition that he is indeed what he professes And whatsoever Canons of the Church there are of which there are not a few which take order that the offerings of such or such shall or shall not be received they all proceed upon this suppoâ—â—tion that by the power of the Keys they are to be allowed or refused their part of benefit in the Communion of the Eucharist and the effects of iâ— For not to speak of what is by the corruption of men but what ought to be by the appointment of God it is manifest that the admission of a man to the communion of the Eucharist is an allowance of his Christianity as conâ—ormable to that which Baptism professeth though in no sâ—ate of the Church it is a sufficient and reasonable presumption that a man is indeed and before God intitled to the promises of the Gospel that he is admitted to the communion of the Eucharist by the Church because whatsoever profession the Church can receive may be counâ—erfeit But so that it is to be indeavoured by all means possible for the Church to use that the right of communicating with the Church in the Sacrament of the Eucharist be not allowed any man by the Church but upon such terms and according to such laws that a man being qualified according to them may be really and indeed qualified for those promises which the Gospell tendreth Which being supposed every Christian must of necessity acknowledge how great and eminent a power the Lord hath trusted his Church with in celebrating and giving of the Eucharist when he is convinced to believe that the body and blood of Christ is thereby tendred him though mystically and as in a Sacrament yet so truly that the spirit of Christ is no lesse really present with it to inable the souls of all them that receive it with sincere Christianity then the Sacrament is to their bodies or then the same spirit is present in the flesh and bloud of Christ naturally being in the heavens For suppose that by faith alone without receiving this Sacrament a man is assured of the spirit of Christ as by faith alone understanding faith alone as S. Paul meant it I shall show that he may be assured of it yet if he have determined a visible act to be done to the due performance whereof he hath annexed a promise of the participation of the Spirit of Christ by our Spirit no lesse then of the body â—nd blood of Christ Sacramentally present by our bodies And if he hath made the doing of this a part of the Christianity which under the title of Faith alone inâ—iâ—leth to promises of the Gospell for who can be said to professe Christianity that owneth not such an Ordinâ—nce upon such a promise Then hath he determined and limited the truth of that faith which onely justifieth us at the beginning of every mans Christianity to the Sacrament of Baptism but in the proceeding of the same to that of the Eucharist These being the first Powers of the Church and having resolved from the beginning that the power of the Church extends to the deterâ—ining or limiting of any thing requisite to the communion of the Church the determination or limitation wherof by such an act as ought to have the force of Law to them that are of the Church becomes requisite to the communion of Christians in the offices of Gods service in unity I cannot see any of the controversies whereby we stand now divided that can deserve a place in our consideration before that of the Baptism of Infants For as it is a dispute belonging to the first and originall power of the Church to consider whether it extend so farre as when it is acknowledged that there is no written Law of God to that purpose that it may and justly hath provided that all the Children of Christian Parents be baptized Infants so it will apear to concern their salvation more immediately then other Laws limiting the exercise of the Churches power or the circumstances of exercising those offices of God service which it tendeth to determine can be thought to do But Before I come to dispute this point I will here take notice once more of the Book called the Doctrine of Baptisms one of the fruits of this blessed Reformation commonly attributed to the Master of a Colledge in Cambridge proving by a studied dispute that it was never intended by our Lord Christ and his Apostles that Christians should be Baptized at all That John indeed was sent to baptize with water but that the Baptism of Christ is baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire And so long as the Ceremonies of the Law were not abolished in point of fact though become void in point of right so long also baptism by water was practised by the Apostles as
Covenant of Grace And supposing that excluding themselves from Gods mercy by sinning against the law of nature as I said in the second Book they are thereby necessarily excluded from all benefit of the second Covenant It is not because they were born under the benefit of it intitled thereunto by the same birth which makes them need it but because as by their birth they need it so by their birth supposing the coming of our Lord Christ they are onely capable of it Therefore it remains firme that though God by Christs death stand obliged to receive those that turn to Christianity yet the Covenant is not inacted till the party become obliged to it And so it remains that I answer negatively that whosoever hope charity may be allowed there is no legall assurance or presumption of salvation for Infants that depart afore Baptism If this will not serve unlesse I affirm where they are and in what estate I will affirm that I know not but I will affirm further that it is an effect of the tree of knowledge to demand a further answer being well resolved that God hath given none They that will not believe the Mystery of the Trinity till I demonstrate to them how three persons can subsist in one nature one in two natures must be Arians or Socinians for any thing that I have here said They that will not believe the Covenant of Grace till they have a reason why God hath taken such a course as will not save those whom he might have taken a course to save must for me be Pelagians or Stoicall Predestinations They that will not submit to the Baptism of Infants till I can tell them where thoâ—e are and in what estate that depart unbaptized must for me be Anabaptists But when that is done how will they be Christians unlesse Christianity preâ—end to resolvâ— these quesâ—ions before a man is obliged to be a Christian which no Christian can imagine I can easily say that they are not to be in the estate of them that are condemned to punishment answerable to their works seeing originall sinne howsoever foul is not the worke of him that hath it And he that undertakes to press me by the Scriptures will as soon be dumbe as he finds the torments of hell no where assigned by the Scriptures but to the works of those thâ—t actually tranâ—gress Gods Lâ—ws As for that condemnation of all mankind by the first Adam our of which it is recovered by the second Adam according to S. Paul Rom. V. I suppose all the world will allow that I acknowledge it whâ—n I allow not those Infants the Kingdom of God that deparâ— unbâ—ptizâ—d If it be â—â—id thâ—t Fulgentius in his Book de fide ad Petrum reckons it for a part of the Catholick faith that Infants departing without Baptism are in hell torments it will be as easie for me to say that Genâ—adius in his Book de dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis acknowedges it not For though Gennadius was onâ— of thoâ—â— whose opinion concerning Grace was prohibited by the Council of Orange and that there is appearance enough that Fulgentius writ expresly to contradict him in the list of positions received by the Church yet seeing this point is not defined by the Councill much lâ—sse by any act of the Church against Pelagius still much lesse by any Tradition of the whole Church before and after Pelagius though it may pass for dogma Ecclesiasticum such a position as the Church alloweth to be held and professed yet it cannot be prâ—ssed for any part of the rule of faith which cannot but be acknowledged by all the Church I will add the words of Gregory Nazianzenâ— in the same Oration a litle afore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some delay for negligence others for covetousâ—esse others are in no capacity to receive it for infancy perhaps or some accident utterly involuntary whereby though they would they could not attain the Grace As therefore we found much difference among those so these They that wholly scorn it in deed are worse then the more covetous or negligent But these are worse then those who fail of the Gift for ignorance or constraint For constraint is no other thing then to fail against a mans will And I truly think that those shall be punished as for their other wickednesse so for neglecting Baptism Those also though lâ—sse because guilty of failing rather for folly then malice But that the last shall neither be punished nor glorified by the iust Judge as without malice though unsealed and suffering rather then doing harm For he who is not worthy of punishment is not therefore of honour as he that is not worthy of honour is not therefore of punishment And I consider also thiâ— If thou condemnest him for murther that would have murdered onely because he would without murdering let him that desired baptism without being baptized be counted baptized In this last câ—se supposing a mans resolution to be a Christian so compleat that only opportunity of being baptized is wanting I conclude with the Church sâ—nce Gregories time that there is no doubt in the salvation of such a one And that by virtue of his own words that Baptism is the Covenant of a new life which if a mans heart fully resolve upon between God and himselfe to doubt of his salvation because his baptism is prevented is contrary to S. Peter to ascribe his salvation to the cleansing of the flesh not to the profession of a good conscience In the mean time he who acknowledges that such a one is not punished for not being baptized though not glorified can neither allow the Kingdom of heaven to an Infant that dyes unbaptized nor condemn him for Original sinne which is for not being baptized As for the opinion of Pâ—lagius who because our Lord said Except ye be born of water and of the spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God granteth Infants that dye unbaptized noâ— to coâ—e to Gods Kingdom but would have thâ—m come to everlasting life neverthelâ—sse the Anabaptists may learn modeâ—ty of him in handling the Scriptures with reverence and not allowing regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost where the Church never allowed the Kingdom of God But on the other side when he maketh life everlasting which himselfe cannot â—istinguish from the Kingdom of God due to nature and birth he voideth the grace of Christ and the intent of his coming seeing nothing but their own choice can hinder men to attain that without Christ which is due to infants by their birth And if any man think to blast this with the reputation of Popery as the conscience of this time is to make that Popery which they understand noâ— â—nd may juâ—â—ly give reasonâ—ble and conscionable men a good opinion of Popery the imputation whereof is so brutishly abused what will he think oâ— himselfe when he finds himselfe in the company of so many Doctors of the Church of Rome as at this day
by John the Baptist and his Disciples But that since then the continuance of Baptism by water in the Church is nothing else but an argument that it hath been destitute of Baptism by fire which is the Holy Ghost which this Reformation or forsooth this Dogmatist pretends to Which opinion obliges to mention again that of Sâ—cinus who allows no further of Baptism then of an indifferent Ceremony which the Church may use still at pleasure to solemnize the profession of Christianity when a man is converted from Infidelity to it as it was prescribed by our Lord to signifie the washing away of sinne from those who having been Jews and Gentiles were converted to be Christians But that the obligation thereof is utterly ceased in respect of those who being born of Christians and bred up in the Church have by the exercise of that Christianity which their yeares intitles them to made continual profession of it These two opinions like Samsons Foxes though â—ied together by the tails to set the Church on fire yet may proceed upon severall grounds For we know that Socinus denying Originall sinne hath reason enough to reject the baptism of men as well as of Infants as not acknowledging any thing but the will of man requisite to make him a good Christian and consequently suspending the premises of the Gospel onely upon that act thereof which resolveth a man to become a good Christian Which how well it agrees with Sovinus his acknowledgement of the gift of the Holy Ghost promised to them that have made this resolution to â—â—able them to perform it is clear to them who shall have perused the premises to give sentence As for the other opinion last mentioned I must professe that I do not take upon me that it is his work who is said to be the Author of it though I name him upon common fame as an instance to evidence that there is no Church of God in England by the present Laws when there is no means to bring to light the Authors of such pestilent Doctrines and when those who pretend to be an University do acknowledge such a man Master of a Colledge partly of Divines as if they were an University they ought not to acknowledge as a Christian to wit belonging to the communion of the Church For though I mean not to charge him with this Book yet so long as he owns all that he is charged with by Rutherford the Scots Presbyterian I do charge him with the Heresie of the Antinomians which here I mention because it seems reasonable to conceive this opinion to be a branch of it wherein how well he is reâ—uted by his adversary how clear his adversary is of the same blame is to be judged by that which I have determined concerning the condition of the Covenâ—nt of Grace For the Heresie of the Antinomians consisting in voiding the condition of the Covenant of Grace it is free for them to make the justification of Christians to go before justifing faith being nothing else but the revelation of Gods mercy which he hath form everlasting for the Elect whom he determining to save sent Christ to redeâ—m them alone It seems therefore very consequent in reason to this position if that operation of the Spirit which they pretend admit any dispute of reason about their positions to say that the gift of the Holy Ghost being due to the Elect by virtue of Christs merits and sufferings provided for them alone and imputed to them alone from everlasting to the remission of sinnes There can be no reason why Baptism should be requisite Those that are not elect not standing in any capacity either of admitting the Gospel or attaining the promises of it those that are being from everlasting estated in the right of them Now if that Presbyterian make justifying faith to consist in the knowledgs of mans Predestination to life in consideration of Christ sent for him revealed to him by Gods Spirit but limited to take effect upon the said revelation of it as I have said that some of them do then I referre my selfe to that which I have said already to show this opinion to be no lesse destructive to Christianity then the former but not so agreeable to it self nor to reason to make remission of sins and salvation appointed them meerly in consideration of Christ to depend upon the revelation of Christ to them altogether impertinent to any act required of them to procure it But if he make justifying faith to consist in a confidence in God such as men may have that are assured of remission of sins and of life everlasting not supposing on their part any condition of turning from the world to God as requisite by the Gospel I referre my selfe still to that which I have said to show how this is destructive to Christianity But why those that have these opinions should neverthelesse maintain the necessity of Baptisme whereof they have no reason to give according to the Scriptures I confesse I am to learn For if we believe Christianity to come from God and therefore all the Laws of it how shall we believe that for one of these Laws he hath provided that all that will be saved be baptized having given assurance of remission of sins and salvation without consideration of it or dependance upon it He that comes to be Baptized either have saving faith or not if he have it he hath it never the more for being baptized being such an assurance as no man may doubt in without failing of all Gods promises If he have it noâ— can baptism bring it unlesse we say with the Church that the promise of the Holy Ghost depends upon it which he that saith if he will give a reason of what he saith must have recourse to the condition of the undertaking and professing of Christianity in consideration whereof God hath promised the gift of the Holy Ghost to inable Christians to perform that which they undertake This is then to say that though I take notice of these Heresies in this place where I purpose to speak of the power of the Church in baptizing yet I hold not my selfe obliged to say any more for the rooting of them out or preventing them then I have said in demonstrating the nature of the Covenant of Grace For I have showed on the one side that the condition required on our parts to undertake if we would be intitled to the promises which it tendreth consisteth in an act of our free choice whereby the course of our lives is dedicated to the service of God as the end for which wee were made and that this course is determined by the Law of Christianity and consequently the act whereby we undertake to professe Christianity called faith by S. Paul that which intitles us to remission of sins and everlasting life And I have showed on the other side that the nature of man being corrupted by the fall of our first Parents could not be