a Seal of the inward washing by his Spirit which is also called the washing or Laver of Regeneration Titus 3.5 Because the inward washing of the Spirit in Regeneration is sealed with the outward washing in Baptism Therefore I find it in the Ecclesiastick Histories That in those ages and places where and when the vilenesse of original pollution was best understood of Parents of Children as most preached of by the Fathers of the Church as in Augustins dayes what running there was od Parents with their Children in their armes to Baptism and why not there being no other visible ordinance appointed of God in the Church but Baptism for the washing away the guilt and filth of that Birthfin and pollution And was it not so of old wherefore did God command the Infants of the Jewes to be circumcised and wherefore were they so circumcised in the fore skin of their flesh but to shew tht the very nature was defiled which they received by carnal generation from their Parents and which they were like to traduce and conveigh to their Children and to testifie what need they had to have such original Corruption and uncircumcision of the flesh to be done away by the clensing and Regeneration Spirit of Christ sealed in their outward Circumcision And that Circumcision in the former as Baptism in the latter dispensation do both poynt at this one and the same thing the Cleming away of the pollution of the natural birth by the Spirit of Christ there is a clear Text Colossians 2.11 12 13. We now are fallen into those days wherein there have been not only shaken but rased many foundations and principles of the Doctrines of Christ especially two of those six in Hebrewes 6.2 Which are Repentance from dead workes a chief of which is original sin and the doctrine of Baptism and wherein a Spirit of Pelagianism hath entred into many and goeth about preaching unto Parents a freedom from original sin pollution in their Infants as derived from Adam and so proclaming a liberty from baptifing of them just as the impostors foretold of by Saint Peter whilest they promise them liberty they themselves are the Servants of Corruption 2 Pet. 2.19 It concerneth us therefore so much the more who are Master-builders in the House of God or but Repairers of the breaches to uphold and maintain these two foundations of the Christians Faith and to teach the people first that as themselves were so their Children are defiled with original sin and pollution by their natural birth and then next that there is no other ordinary way of clensing and washing them but by the regenerating and purifying Spirit and Grace of Christ Signified Sealed and Exhibited in andby the outward washing of Water in Baptism as pleaseth God Again I say not that Baptism doth all this from or by the deed done or work wrought which is their Popish phrase but as our Protestants say either as it is a means to give exhibite Christ with his benefits the which it doth by signification as a particular Certificate assuring forgivenesse of sins or as a token or pledge of the Grace of God confirming it Or as an instrument because in and with the right use of Baptism God confers Grace where and when he pleaseth for it is no Physicall but a Moral Instrument and sets his image or mark of Regeneration upon the party whence Baptisme is called the Laver of Regeneration God is at liberty and may when and how he pleaseth let his Grace accompany his ordinance of Baptism Which way soever God doth work these great things by or in Baptism Methinks it is a potent and invincible reason and warrant for the bringing Infants upon Baptism the onely outward ministerial remedy in the Church for the abating and abolishing the malady of original sin of which even Infants stand guilty born and conceived in it unlesse you would involve Parents in another guilt of neglecting the meanes and cure of that disease which they were instrumental to the bringing their Children into or else that you are of the opinion of the Pelagian Hereticks who held no original sin at all in Infants but actual which they also contracted by Imitation of other wicked whereupon all the Antient and Orthodox Divines urged and pressed them with the Baptism of Infants and made it a foundation and proof of original sin in Infants like as I now go the other way and urge and presse original sin in Infants as a proof and plea or warrant as you call it for the Baptism of Infants as being the only outward ordinary way to begin their cure and Rogeneration more briefly and syllogistically thus take it as I recollect it If Baptism be commanded of God in the Gospel for the washing away the guilt and filth of original and birth sin then all Infants who are Partakers of these are commanded Baptism But Baptism is commanded of God in the Gospel for the washing away the guilt and filth of original and birth-sin Therefore Infants who are Partakers of these are commanded Baptism The first proposition is not questionable the light of Nature and Reason commandeth the use of meanes and medicines to the end and for maladies the sick need the Physician c. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden c. The second proposition is the matter of the Texts Rom. 6.3 and 4. and Acts 22.16 as hath been declared and so I have reasoned baptism of Infants into a command before I intended it Sirs I speak to you Parents are you willing your little pretty babes should be saved you should be very willing and desirous of it and the rather in that you have been means of conveighing into them a corrupt seed you should labour they might be born again of the incorruptible seed by the Word of God and the Seales thereof one whereof which is fit for them in their Infantile Estate is this Baptism I am speaking of and for If you would have them saved it must be either without or with Regeneration without Regeneration they cannot be saved For Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh a degenerate sinful corrupt thing neither can corruption iherit incorruption Therefore they must be saved with Regeneration for except a man be born again of Water and the Spirit John 3.3.6 He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit a Regenerate sanctified and clean thing If so the Sirs bring forth your Infants and Babes unto the Laver and means of Regeneration present them to the Water of Baptism and wati and pray for the Spirit of God that it would move upon the face of the Waters as it did in the first Generation and so form a spiritual Light out of or in a natural darknesse That the Baptismal Water may be effectual by and through that Spirit of God as Waters of Jordan were
Scriptures for our imitation but for our learning Rom. 15.14 Yea we finde the custom of baptizing in Rivers and Springs used by John the Baptist and practised also by Philip to have bin altred and left by other the Disciples and Apostles Peter therefore baptized or if not Peter himself those that accompanied Peter thither or some Disciples he met there because it s said Peter commanded them of Cornelius house to be baptized and no man is said properly to command himself Baptized them within the doors and did not remove thence they and all the company to the next Rivers or Fountains Yea and Paul though he had but lately Acts 16.13 and 15. baptized Lydia and her household at a Rivers side a place where prayer was wont to be made as also preaching and whither women resorted and whither came Lydia with her houshold who the Lord opening her heart attending to what Paul said was converted and so being at this time by the Rivers side was baptized there occasionally in the same Chapter 33 34. Verses baptized the Jaylor and all his in the prison-house occasionally also because he was there and in that place converted to the faith the words themselves do evince the same The Jaylor took Paul and Silas the same hour it was midnight and washed their stripes and was baptized he and all his straightway and therefore the Disciplse lead them not out to the next Rivers Fountains it was no time season to do it at midnight and his being baptized straightway the same hour sheweth that there was no stay made until next morning to have it done in any such place and the like is to be thought of all those other persons and their housholds whom St. Paul is said to have baptized namely in their houses and not in Rivers and Fountains Likewise which I should have mentioned first Ananias baptized Saul in the house where he found him sitting in sorrow for his persecution and in amazement about his vision in the way though now blinde so the series of the Text sheweth it Ananias went his way entred into the house where Saul was put his hands upon him and immediately the scales fell from his eyes and he received his sight forthwith arose and was baptized namely in the place and house where he was Acts 9.19 Afterwards in process of time the Church of God left off going to Rivers as for baptism and ordained large vessels for the same purpose called Baptisteria with the Latines and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Greeks and with us as with them also Ambrose and others Fonts or Founts though at first these were placed without the Church or Temple but with a house also over the same and that for the honour of the Christian Religion and the more decent celebration of that mystery thereof so Cyril in his first Catech. and Paulinus in his 12 Epistle to Severas and Nazianzen in his 40. Oration And there was at first but one of these in a City placed nigh unto the Basilica or greatest Church wherein all rich and poor were baptized like as it is still observed and to be seen in Florence Parma Bononia and other Cities of Italy And one thing more of Antiquity I will acquaint you and some others with that both Constantine the Great Emperour and Professor too in the year 300 after Christ or thereabouts made one himself a costly Font for baptizing and willed others to do the like whose outside was of Marble or Porphyry and the inside of pure silver which I repeat to tax the niggardise or prophanenesses of these latter ages wherein men who yet are great professors put off the same Sacrament of baptism with an earthen Bason or a pewter one atthe best in most places And so a little after for good causes they remmoved their Fonts or Baptisteries into the very Churches and placed them as they were with us next the porch or entrance of the same as Gregor Turonensis witnesseth lib. 2. hist cap. 21. so called because he was Bishop of Turon in France in the year 573. who testifieth this amongst the Histories of France which he wrote and so also doth the Decretal distinct 4. cap. 106. For good causes saith Turonensis best known to themselves which because he could not or would not relate being in a history and that removal of the Fonts was of mystery this may be one that the word and the first seal of entrance which is baptism as well as the second seal of continuance and perseverance which is the Eucharâ—st might be both administred within the Church for more order decency and conveniency sake Now all this I have added to shew how your Pond-baptism is a new business not onely as to Apostolique customes but to the Primitive fashions and all successive practises yea as to your own original Authors and Scismarchs of whom I told you before who ran not to Ponds but to Rivers to be dipped Not that I make any difference of waters as to the material of baptism or the effectual therof whether it be Pond-water or Rivere-water or Well-water as who hold with Tert. in his book of Baptism ca. 1.12 Nulla est distinctio mari quis aut stagno flumine aut fonte lacu aut alueo diluatur I give you this reason because in the water of all those places there is and rests the Analogy which each of them being true natural and elementary water hath with the blood and Spirit of Christ purging and cleansing from sin And because Christ by his Example as Chrysostom homil 25. in John by his Mandate Word and Authority hath sanctified all water as well as Jordan But it is that which I have said of your Pond-dipping onely to these purposes First to convince you of a new business who talk so much of your good old way of which that is none but the River-dipping and other was that Secondly to take you tardy in following Scripture and primitive Examples which you pretend so much to as who do forsake the River-dipping and go to the Pond Thirdly to tell you that as there is no discrimination in waters to choose of for baptismal-uses and benefits so there was heark you Sir in your ear little or no discretion in you and yours to make choise of a commond Pond or Weyr to dip your two new converted holy Sisters in wherein Horses Cowes Swine Geese Ducks do daily duck and pick themselves wallow and drench themselves and do somewhat elss besides Though they as you thought it seems and shewed indeed deserved no better a pond of water to be dipped in wherein you were like to those in James who had their faiâ—h in respect of persons who saâ—d but to the poor in vile rayment stand thou there or sit here under my foot-stool dip thou here in my horse-pond yet you being about a work of the Lords appointing as you pretended namely a dipping naming it baptism this indeed is the
is one and the same in both and both but one and the same baptisme as to the Essence they differ indeed in Circumstance John baptising into Christ as to come and to suffer and Christs Apostles baptising into Christ as come and suffered If you alledge the words of John against this Matth. 3.11 I baptise you with Water but be that cometh after me shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire it is but a poor shift to shift off that to the baptisme of John and Christ which is put upon the persons of John and Christ for the words carry onely a difference of the Ministers of one and the same baptisme John dispencing it outwardly in Water by the hand of Man Christ dispencing it inwardly by the Finger of his Spirit which is as Fire It s but Popish sophistry to compare Johns baptism with water and Christs baptisme with Fire Johns baptisme with water is onely to be compared to Christs baptisme with water and then both the baptisme of John and of Christ are but one both in Authority for Christ Authorised and Appointed it John 3 3. Hâ— that sent me to baptise with water c waâ— God as also in Essence as I hinted for John used the right Element and matter and baptised with Water and the right Words or form invocating the sacred Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost is appears both because it was the form known to John and the Apostles who certainly baptised many before the death of Christ and before that form was solemnly and publickly declared Math. 28.19 after Christs Death and Resurrection besides that in the 19. of the Acts Saint Paul testifieth that John baptised into faith on Christ to come and so knowing Christ he could not be ignorant of the Father and the Spirit yea John 1.33 there is a manifest Testimony of the Father sending to him and telling him of the Spirits descending like a Dove upon him who was the Son of God So thirdly they were the same in effect and efficacy For John preached and practised the baptisme of Repentance for or unto the Remission of Sins Marke 1.4 the same which the Apostles did in and by their administration of baptisme And Christ himself testifieth that the baptisme of John pertained to the fulfilling of righteousnesse Matth. 3.15 and that the Publicans and People being baptised of John Justified God But the Phariseet despising the Counsel of God were not baptised Luke 7.29 Whereby it appears that Johns baptisme was a part of that All Righteousnesse a piece of the whole Counsel of God which they that partaked of Justified and declared God to be good and righteous Were it not so the Apostles themselves might be questioned whether truly baptised as who were no doubt baptised of John some of them being first his Disciples for where else should they be baptised seeing Christ with his own hands baptised none unlesse one of them should baptise another which is not probable And Lastly If Johns baptisme were not one and the same with ours that we have of Christs how do we injoy the same common baptisme with Christ who was baptised of John It will follow That Christ was baptised with another baptism than we are and so that our baptisme was not sanctified in the person and flesh of Christ like as the Jews circumcision was and so it will abate much of our Comfort that we have Christian Baptisme the members one and the same Baptisme with our head Thus I have driven you off this shoar of Jordan John Baptists Wharf where you see you cannot land or ground your dipping of Christians or your Rebaptising of Christened people as we speak Though I must withall prompt you here that our Quaere is in these tearms twixt Anabaptists and us Whether the baptism of Christ which is given to and received by infant Caristians or Christian infants may be iterated and you and they bring a Text to shew that the baptism of Iohn was iterated which as it is not to the scope and purpose so neither can you shew the same was iterated ever in the twelve Disciples or any other baptised of Iohn I say so long as you hold the baptism of Iohn and Christ to be two different and repagnant baptismes you cannot inforce upon us from Iohns baptismes iterated suppose so Christs baptism to be iterated It will be best for you therefore see how still and ever I am ready to give the best counsell I can to yeeld to the identity of both Iohns and Christs baptism as to the nature and substance of them and so indeed you may argue from the one to the other Hale in therefore again your Fly-boat to Iohn Baptists shoar and see if you can land there any thing to your purpose cast on this right side your net again into Iordan catch a frog Whatsoever you get you then and thus will lose your new and true friends the Papists and Jesuites for they row hard against you and these throw their nets on the other side holding that Iohn and Christs baptism are very far asunder and different in the very Essentials and do and will accurse you with Tridentine Book Bell and Candle and Lantern too of their ship none of which I know you can abide especially not the Book and Bell and Anathematise all who say that Iohn and Christs baptism are the same for substance and of the same force It is like to be a hot sea-fight as most an end the hottest fights are upon the water and there is most fire spit out or rather a cold River skirmish twixt you which I for my part do not intend to stand looking on though I have set you together by the ears but will thus leave you to fight it out to the last man and will passe away and on to another Text pressed and squeezed by some of your party for the Rebaptising of baptised ones It is Heb. 6.2 Where there is mention made amongst other Principles of the Doctrine of Christ The Doctrine of Baptismes Lo say they Here are Baptismes in the plurall as well as one Baptism in the singular and if your reason were good why the Apostle called it one Baptism because it is to be but once given and received may not we say say they our reason is good why the same Apostle calleth Many Baptismes two at least and so baptise you your Infants in their Infancy and we will baptise ours in their growth when they can make profession of Faith And so here are baptismes Truely this is somewhat like the discourse the Saduces had with Christ about one Woman who had seaven Husbands whose Wife she shall be of the seaven in the Resurrection I say and answer in Generall as Christ did Are yee not therefore deceived and do err because you know not the Scripture I could tell you here of the baptismes that of Iohn and the other of Christ to be here meant and you may remember if
contemners and despisers of his Sacraments fall heavily upon you and some or other curse of God pursue you so also that such water may be loathsom and noysom to you afterwards Remember Esau again For ye know how that afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing Heb. 12.16 17 he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it with tears Are they not ritghtly called Jacob's Supplanters one of the first planters of them was called Jacob and that rightly for they that take away your Birth-right Baptism will also take away your Blessing the Blessing of God in Covenant with you as well as with your Parents Yea remember one of the Separation by name Hodsou of the City of Glecester and by an Epithite called Hodson-peevish who since he was new baptised grew as light in the head as before he was light in heart the which I finde recorded by Master Thomas Wynell in print a Minister of Cranham nigh unto that City Yea remember the sad and desatrous ends of those first Ringleaders of re-baptising Muncer Cnipperdoling c. And now thirdly Can they charm sweetly and delightfully to any of you who have the root of bitterness in them from which I dehorted you and whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness like as they have bitter envying and sirife in their hearts against your Mother-Church and your Baptism especially wherein ye were if regenerate at all born again of water and the Spirit My Brethren these things ought not to be doth a Fountain send forth at the same place or hole of heart or mouth sweet water and bitter Hear now ye Benjamites ye left-handed Protestants will the Son of Jesse Muncer who I mentioned but now give every one of you the Field Benefits 1 Sam. 22 2 5 and Vine-eard Priviledges of Christ and his Church by their new dipping of you and make you Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds against your sins that they shall not raign or have dominion over your mortall bodies or immortall Soules that all of you have conspired against your Mother-Church and brethren Ministers O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified amongst you even in your Baptism Gal. 3.1 as the word and other Sacrament wherein you were sprinkled with the blood of Christ unto the washing away of sin being also crucified in the old man with him and buried with him by Baptism that the body of sin might be destroyed that thenceforth ye should not serve sin I mervaile that you are so soon removed away from your Baptism and your calling into the Grace of Christ and his Covenant of Grace unto another Baptism which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Baptism of Christ Gal. 1.6 7 But though they or an Angell from Heaven preach any other Baptism unto you then that which we have preached and reached unto you let him be accursed and as I said before so say I now again if any man preach or reach any other Baptism unto you than that ye have received of us let him be accursed or let him shew where ever the Lord Blessed for ever at any time blessed or consecrated instituted or appointed a Baptism of Baptized ones Parents or Children or any other Baptism then once of Believing Parents and their Children once They say if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another mans shall be return again to her shall not that Land be greatly polluted But thou hast played the Harlot with many Baptisms and many Dippers yet return again to me saith the Lord I say return again to the Lord Jer. 3.1 and to the Lords Baptism if thou hast put it away from thee and renounced it if thou be gone from him and with the strange woman hast forsaken the guide of thy youth yea Child-hood and forgotten the Covenant of thy God Prov. 2.17 and the Seal thereof art become another mans and betaken thy self to another Baptism for which the Land is also defiled as thy self I say return again to the Lord and his and thy first Baptism The Lord look upon thee and remember thy first Baptism and the words of the Covenant of Christ and go out from amongst them who by their Quaeres and intricate questioning of thee caused thee to deny thy first Baptism and therein thy Lord and Master go out and weep bitterly for the same Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works Rev. 2.5 and leave not thy first Love hold fast that which thou hast already even thy first Baptism till Christ come I say Repent and be still as you were in your Infancy baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ and you shall have the Remission of your sins even of this sin of being Baptized again if so you have committed it For the promise is made to you and to your Children with many other words I would have testified and exhorted you saying save your self from this untoward Generation But that I hasten and will tell you to the contrary Look often back to your first Baptism in your Infancy and think not upon any other Baptism afterwards as to a Store-house of comfort in all time of your need if you be tempted by the devill and assaulted about your sins in your youth or old age think not now of ny new or second Baptism but recall thy first and old Baptism oppose it against him say and know that therein God hath promised and sealed unto thee the pardon of thy sins and the purchase of everlasting life by Christ If thou beest troubled with doubtings and weakness of Faith Fetch from thy first Baptism such a strengthening consideration and meditation for the doing of which to introduce another Baptism is but a Fetch that God hath given thee there an earnest and pledge of his loving kindness to thee in the water sprinkled upon thee representing the blood of Christ applyed to thee and so as when Thomas saw the Holes in Christs-side and the print of the nailes he strengthened his Faith against doubtings be not thou faithless but faithfull when thou reflectest upon thy Baptism and remembrest the pouring out of the blood of Christ for thee and the earnest thereof the pouring out of water upon thee If thou liest under any kind of Crosse or Calamity whatsoever have recourse to thy Baptism in which God hath promised to be thy God of which promise he will not fail thee nor canst thou be miserable having this promise yea if God be with thee who shall be against thee Thou doest often look upon the wills and Testaments of thy Father and Grandfather when you are in a doubt of hour Estate or in some trouble about it or in want to be resolved in all
therefore the Jewish Infants were to have the initial Seal of Circumcision the old Ministration imprinted upon them in their infancy to seal up the Covenant unto them under which they were born though they had no such discerning as is now required of the Replier to be in the present act of our new Ministration so our Christian Infants are to have the initial Seal of Baptism the new Ministration sprinkled upon them In their infancy to seal up the same Covenant unto them under which they are born though they have no more discerning than was mentioned to be in the Jewish Infants then at the past act of their old Ministration And yet neither of these Ordinances vain or ineffectual to either of the Infant parties For the efficacy of Baptism as Circumcision depends not upon the act of the Creature discerning and working this is but a rank Romance or a Roman prank of the Replier but upon the free Grace and mercy of God conveighing and operating yea Baptism is not onely a transient act as to sprinkling of water and outward washing but a permanent and continued act of the same grace and mercy as to the inward washing and application of Chirsts merits unto all Gods children But Jewish infants discerned somewhat as who had a bodily seeling of the cutting of their the foreskin of their flesh and so have our Christian infants a bodily feeling of the water laid upon their forehead or faces but what 's either to the purpose of the spiritual discerning of either action or sign as Sacramental to them they discern somewhat and this somewhat is nothing nothing to the purpose being but a natural feeling of the coldness of the water or sharpness of the knife But there is mroe reason there should be demanded discerning of the sign when Baptism is ministred than there was when Circumcision was given for this left a mark or print of it self behinde it so that the Circumcised person bare in his body the mark of the Lord Jesus to use the Apostles phrase and he did daily discern that visible sign to assure him that he was sealed into Covenant with God but the water leaves no impression upon Baptized infants but is either presently wiped off with a Handkercheif by the Midwife or other woman though I think they should not do so and the Ministers ought to rebuke them for it or shortly after it is dried up of it self so that the body is as if it were not washed or wetted at all and and no mark to be seen outwardly to put the party in minde of his being sealed into God his peculiar Servant But what and if there be a mark and character of Baptism like as of Circumcision then there is no more reason of discerning in the one party than the other I do not mean that mark which Papists hold is formed in the soul of every Baptized infant and inscribed thereby the external action of Baptism Simply and barely in it self considered which they call an Indelible character For such is not to be found in Scriptures nor Orthodox writers such a character as may be imprinted and consist without grace in a soul damned and besides its absurd if not impious to ascribe to an external action of a creature that which is the proper act of God an internal characterising or indelible marking in the soul and they may as well say the bare and naked external preaching of the Gospel or remission of sins doth imprint eternal salvation upon the soul without perceiving any force or using any faith But I mean that mark and character which the Ancient Orthodox held to be imprinted in Baptism which was either that gracious act or gift never to he reiterated and therefore called an indelible character for a man rightly baptized becomming a Turk or Jew and afterwards returning to the faith and Church of Christ is in no case to be re-baptized the vertue of his former Baptism is not spunged out but still remainech a vailable of which matter I have spoke largely before or else the very grace and gife of the holy spirit of which the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts and Eph. 1.13 In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which also may very truly be called an indelible seal and character wheresoever it is inscribed and imprinted as it is in the hearts and souls of many Baptized infants even all belonging to the eternal election and inheritance mentioned and spoken of in the Texts above alleged Or thirdly the character of Baptism is that passive power whereby the party Baptized is made fit and capable in due time and order to receive the other Sacrament the Lords Supper whereof without Baptism he were uncapable as without Circumcision the Jew was of the Passeover So then there is in both the initial seal marks or characters and as much mark left upon the face and forehead of the infant Baptized as there was upon your head and face when you were dopt or dipt over both in the Pond or River you wote off and though the outward mark were more permanent in Circumcision being done and engraven upon and into the flesh by incision yet there was an outward mark in Baptism though more transient done and laid upon the face and flesh by aspersion or infusion as anciently by immersion But neither was the one character or mark more discernable to the one the Circumcised infant then the other to the Baptized infant neither if it was was it more available to the participation of the Passeover then the other to the partaking of the Lords Supper or more acceptable to God who though he set sometimes an outward mark upon them that mourned Ezek. 9. and so and outward mark upon the houses of the Egyptians for good ends and purposes and so appointed the external elements and actions both of Circumcision and Baptism to be holy and profitable signes and seals yet are not the outward marks in the flesh or the sensitive discernings of the sings the excellencies of Circumsion or the eminencies of Baptism nor is God taken onely or chiefly delighted with beholding such external services and administrations who required these at your hands these onely or chiefly when therefore the Jewish infants came to years of discretion and discerning God looked for and called for not the Circumcision of the flesh but for the Circumcision of the heart this was the mark he looked for and upon in his sheep the Israelites and and so likewise when Christian infants shall attain to the age of discerning and understanding God will look for and upon not so much the water in or upon the face which was the mark of flesh as the blood of Christ in the heart which is the mark of the Spirit And this is that I conclude with As one of your Baptized and re-baptized adult proselytes may
3. The case of necessity in state of Person I scarce understand unless it be this When as he or she earnestly desireth and imploreth for the same whether by its speech or its need and there is no Minister to give it Baptism here the Lord will have mercy and not sacrifice and men are not to stand upon this ordination but the persons salvation Let but your Brother or your self stay and expect such cases of necessity before you or he dip any more or baptize again and then though you be not nor he set a part for the administring that Ordinance but are meer Lay men you shall hear nothing from me against the same I assure you But if in a well ordered and already planted and constituted Church and that when there are no such cases or states of necessity but that lawfully ordained Ministers may easily be procured you and your Brethren will go on still to dip and baptize and that publiquely being no better ordered or set a part then you have related I shall say though again Ye take too much upon you ye sons of Gad for I shall not hold you of the Tribe of Levi Num. 16.7 or Issachar rather couching down between two burthens Genes 49.14 your Laical and Ministerial Callings And it shall come to pass as Zacharias saith Zach. 13.4 5. that such Prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision which he hath prophesied and every one of his Division that he hath made and set a partition yea of his Dipping also that he hath ministred and Baptisin and he shall say and confess at last I am no Prophet I am an Husbandman for man taught me to keep cattel from my youth God never ordained me to dip Christians from my birth Distinctly Take this a Presbyter or Priest in respect of his Ministerial Character and Order I mean onely a sacerdotal gift power and commission is primarily and principlally the publick and ordinary minister of Baptism A Deacon may baptize also and that publikely so it be at the appointment of the Bishop or Priest but a Priest by his own right may baptize ex officio as we say by vertue of his sacerdotal office even in the presence of a Bishop But a Layman may not baptize publickely but onely privately neither privately in the presence of a Priest or Deacon but onely in their absence neither alwayes in their absence but onely in case of necessity Then it hath been permitted according to the good old way and new way also of true Churches some such times to Laymen to baptize so he intend to do that which the Catholick Church doth in that kind of administration The second Catechistical Quaere is concerning the Persons Dipped Quaere 2. What warrant of precept or example have you from the Sacred Word or Prim tive Antiquity for your Dipping and Anabapâ—izâ—ng Christians washed before or members of the visible Church baptized once in their Infancy by lawful Ministers so as the two Women and Sisters were whom your Brother Dipped Ask now of the days that are past which were before since the day that God created man and woman upon Earth and commanded circumcision in the eldest Chruch of the Jews and appointed Baptism in the younger Church of the Gentiles ask from the beginning to the end of both whether there hath been any such thing as this that a person circumcised or baptized in their infancy were ever recircumcised or rebaptized at growth or yeras after when they could render a Reason or make confession of their Faith c. Instance in one if you can and be instant upon it as you will and is not then your dipping the formerly dipped a new business As for that example of Joshua upon Gods command Circumcise again the children of Israel the second time Jos 5.2 This doth not intimate any Repetition or Reiteration of that Sacrament in or to the same particular Israelitish person circumcised as if he should be now circumcised again but onely relates the Restauration and Renovation of that Sacrament unto the people of Israel in general amongst whom Circumcision was a long while intermitted and discontinued by reason of their frequeut yea continual journals and removings up and down as the 4 5 6 Verses do evidence the same As for that Acts 19.5 of St. Pauls practise the example of the Ephesian Disciples in the Acts it is abundantly answered in my Instruction of your Scribe to which I refer you and I add this for a plainer and shorter Resolution for you 1. That it maketh nothing for your Re-dipping and Re-baptizing 1. Because St. John's Baptism being there spoken of and you or your Sect being Popish in your opinion of Re-baptizing and so holding from hence that the Baptism of John and Christ are two different Baptisms and that in the substance and not onely in the Degree of their signification and efficacy Here was no iterat on of one and the same but the ministration of a diverse Baptism and so is not to your or my purpose 2 For that there is no Baptism of water spoken of much less there laid to be reiterated that the Ephesian Disciples had long before received from some of Johns Disciples but onely the Baptism of Fire i.e. of the Spirit and the miraculous gifts of the same is there mentioned which they confess they had not so much as heard of namely that they unsually as then accompanied the other Baptism of water And so that the former was that they were baptized with and was poured upon them there in the Name of Jesus namely the gifts of the holy Spirit which were miraculous If you shall produce as somewhat you must say for your selves the example of Saul Cornelius and the Eunuch baptized in their elder years upon their conversion to and cofession of Christ and the commands of God to Ananias Peter and Philip c. to baptize them thereupon All this and as much more which you might have alledged of the same sort brings no advantage to your practice no age to your new business of Rebaptising the second time for that the mentioned above were their first and onely baptizings they being some of them Pagans born others aliens from the Covenant of Christ adverse and opposite to ignorant at leastwise of the Christian Faith were then frist of all baptized upon their embracing of it and never after baptized again No not the Black Aethiopian amongst them was ever dipped the second time And what is all this to your Redipping of two Women baptized before in their infancy as being born Christians and within the Covenant of Grace and Christ Yea more if the Pope of Rome should come over into England and turn Protestant or become one of your Sect a separate nor we would nor should you of right baptize him again having been baptized before rightly as to the Element and Words of Institution Therefore the Ancient Orthodox Church never Re-baptized Hereticks themselves upon their
of their first baptism that as many of them as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ Galat. 3.27 1 Cor. 6.11 such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified c. see also Rom. 6.3 c. The Husband who hath kept the marriage contract inviloable and undefiled in his part and is willing to receive into bed and board a fornicating wife requires no new marriage or the solemnities thereof again but her humiliation onely and submission with promise of better carriage after God who keepeth Covenant for ever fast and indissoluble on his part is also ever ready to admit into his Grace and Favor all who have gone a whoring from him onely upon their repentance and sorrow with resolves of reformation for time to come and expects no new solemn Re-baptizings and Re-dippings into the Covenant but I have spoken somewhat of this in the Scribe instructed I shall add to this point but a few words of the good old Fathers of the Church and shall shew by them that this your second baptism or rebaptizing was is none of their good old way Some of them built their judgements against Rebaptization upon those Texts Rom. 6.9 Heb. 9.28 wherein it s said Christ died once for all but once offered for sin Hence Basil de Spirit usancto Cap. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I English it for your sake We know there is but one saving Baptism for that there is but one Death for the world and one Resurrection from the dead of which Baptism is the Figure Damasc lib. 4. Orthod sid Cap. 10. hath almost the same words as to the one Death Augustine also de vera falsa poen Cap. 3. if that be his Book hath the same also Semel Christus crucifixus est una morte suâ nos omnes redemit quod videns Ecclesia intellexit non iterandum esse Baptisma Let the English before serve for this also Yea Damascen calleth the Reiteration of Baptisin rightly collated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if rebaptization were a kind of Recrucifixion of Christ others of them concluded against rebaptization from John 13.10 He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit Thus Augustine lib. 11. de Baptismo contra Donat. cap. 14. Quid sit perniciosius non baptizari an rebaptizari judicare difficile est Invenio de utraque Domini sententiam nam Petro dixit qui lotus est non habet necessitatem iterum lavandi Nicodemo nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aquâ Spiritu non intrabit in regnum coelorum It is hard to judge whether of the two is more pernicious not to be baptized at all or to be again baptized I finde the Lords sayings of both for he said to Peter He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit And to Nicodemus unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven John 3.5 It seems St. Austin could not well tell or would not which of the two are the worst an Abaptist or an Anabaptist Ambrose also lib. de iis qui initiantur myst cap. 6. and Fulgentius de Fide ad Petrum cap. 36. agree to the same interpretation of and argumentation out of that place of John against Rebaptization especially Fulgentius whose words are Ideò Baptisma et si ab Haeretieis fuerit administratum modò in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus sancti fuerit factum venerabiliter agnoscendum ab hoc nullatenus iterandum esse juxta dictum Christi semel lot us non indiget nisi ut pedes lavet I shall english this the rather to you because it confirms a passage of mine before which perhaps seemed strange if not false to you Therfore Baptism although it were administred of Hereticks as long as it was done in the name of the Father Son and holy Spirit is venerably to be acknowledged and even for this not to be repeated or reiterated according to the saying of Christ once washed hath no need save to wash his feet Others of them concluded against Rebaptizing from Ephes 4.5 One Lord one Faith one Baptism Thus Leo Papa cited by Gratian decret de censec dist 4. Canon non licet And so Thom. Aquinas in 4. Sent. Distinct 3. I shall onely cite what the learned Hugo saith Hac authoritate universi utuntur All the Ancients make use of this Text and Authority against second or double Baptism quod enim unum est geminari non potest that which is but one cannot be doubled and iterated whether a man be baptized of a Catholique or of a Heretick as he also addeth but no more of this because there is somewhat of this unity of Baptism in my Instruction or a Scribe I know there be some of our Divines do not allow of these ancient Deductions and Argumentations from those Texts cited by them which I believe they would have made good and firm if they had been questioned in their times and now others might do the same in their behalf But this in present is onely my business to shew their Judgements not to maintain all their Arguments by which they grounded them I say to shew what their judgements about this your Redipping and Rebaptizing namely that they are quite against it and would not own it as any of their good old wayes its evident this was their strong and unanimons judgement and therefore the and very probably confirmed it from the Scripture Dictates mentioned and produced above The third Catechistic I Quoere aebout the maner of this Dipping Quaere 3. What warrant or command or example have you from the sacred Scriptures or the succeeding Primitive Antiquity for your dipping of persons in their clothes and vestments at your baptizing them so your two Sisters stripping themselves in a chamber and putting on other and others clothes that so they might have their own dry against they came to the House again from the Pond went into the Pond in their clothes and there were dipped in their body and clothes as you relate to me and as you or others instructed them All this speaketh novelty and nothing else but a new business unheard in Scripture unseen in Antiquity and the Ancient Churches For do your think that thd Eunuch or Lydia were thus and in this maner baptized of Philip and Paul in the waters clothed and with their garments upon them and that to this purpose they went aside in private to shift themfelves of the suits they had on and to put on others that they might have dry clothes ready against they came out of the water with their wet ones say not so no not in your thought for the Scripture saith no such matter no nor suggesteth any such thing to thought This being then silent here succeeding Antiquity must be heard what they say and you cannot refuse to do so seeing in your
give repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2.24 25. 1. The children of Israel are said to be all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea 1 Cor. 10.2 the Red sea being an antitype of the Waters of Baptism and the cloudy pillar an antitype of the Spirit yet were they not dipped in the cloud dashed they might be and wetted with the cloud and some showers or drops falling from it as they passed under it going before them and behinde them at times as Exod. 14.22 but dipped or immerged in or into it you will not say I suppose nor can you say I think that the Israelites were dipped in or under the waters of the Red Sea as which were a wall unto them both on the right hand and on the left so that they walked dry foot and dry shod through the same sprinkled they might be and washed a little with some droppings and aspersions from the walls but dipped and immerged they were not in them and yet baptized I the rather and at first instance in this because the Apostle doth himself call this a figure or example of our Baptism at the 6. and 10. verses for as in that passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea they were preserved and their enemies the Egyptians drowned so by our undergoing and partaking of Baptism the water whereof representeth the blood of Christ to us our fouls are saved and our enemies sin and our natural corruption are enfeebled and overthrown so as remitted unto us thereby it cannot have dominion or bring damnation 2. Our Saviour asketh the two ambitious Suitors Can ye be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with and foretelleth them With the Baptism that I am baptized with shall ye be baptized Mark 10.38 39. What did he mean that either himself or those two Apostles should be dipped all over in blood and immerged therein no rather but that they should be sprinkled with the drops thereof and besmeared with the same so himself Though blood trickled down his head by the pricking of the Thorns and blood ran down his back by the cuttings of the scourge and blood issued out with water out of his side by the piercings of the spear and blood fell out of his hands and feet by the wounding of the spikes and nailes sprinkled he might be and aspersed in body and so was with blood but dipt and immerged he was not and yet baptized with the baptism thereof and as for the two Brothers James was killed of Herod with the sword Act. 12.2 and so he was baptized in blood but not dipt in it and John was banished by Domitian into the Isle of Patmos in the 90 year of the Nativity of Christ which was as every persecution is a kind of such baptism as is here meant by our Saviour where he endured Exile nine or ten years and there wrote the Revelation to the Churches but being after released by Trajanus he returned to Ephesus and there wrote his Gospel and there dyed in the 100. year after the Nativity he onely amongst all the Aposties being the Survivor of them all siccâ morte sine sanguine as some say though Augustine Libro Soliloq Cap. 29. Tom. 9. hath these words Veneni poculum Johanues intrepidus potavit He was forced to drink a cup of poyson but he saith not that he died thereof so if he were not baptized with the baptism that Christ was he drank of the cup which Christ did and foretold he should die also in the same Text. 3. John the Baptist told the people that He who came after him meaning Christ should baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire Mat. 3.11 and Christ himself foretold the Apostles they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many dayes hence Acts 1.5 and so they were on the day of Pentecost following when there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost Acts 2.3 4. thus were they baptized with fire and the holy Ghost but not dipped or immerged in that fire but rather aspersed or superfused according to the phrase of Scripture I will pour out my spirit Joel 2.28 and the spirit was shed abundantly Titus 3.6 I could tell you of more baptizings for so the word is in the original of Cups Tables and Beds as they are mentioned in the Evangelist Mark 7.4 The which howsoever they may fit you well as being Pharisaical and Hypocritical and me also as wherein there was no dipping or immerging but onely washing and rubbing I passe by for brevity sake as also that which the Fathers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called since the Baptism of Repentance in which they were not merged or drowned in tears that 's but a metaphorical phrase to shew an abundance of their weeping but onely sprinkled and perfused with tears by which they did seek and desire the remission of their sins and also found and obtained the same 4. I will add but one more 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead whether it be taken passively according to the translation for those who were baptized with water for dead i.e. given over for dead or ready to die or whether Actively and Passively for those who did baptize and also were baptized over the dead i upon the graves of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being oft as here put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as learned Beza observeth upon Mat. 17.27 and Mark 10.48 or whether it be meant who are washed for dead their dead bodies are washed according to the custom of the Patriarchs as yet then retained in the Church and mentioned to be done unto Dorcas Acts 9.37 who being dead they washed and laid in an upper chamber which way soever that Baptizing with water be meant it cannot imply any dipping or immerging as being unto dying persons or unto persons baptized over graves or unto dead bodies And thus I have shewed you that there may be baptizings where there are no dippings and immergings and that this derivative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of a larger signification then its original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the general and therefore that it can be no Argument to prove your dipping to be the baptizing because baptism is a derivative word from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to dip And so I come now to the very particular work in hand and shall take it not onely in the Grammatical and Theological sense but in the very Sacramental and Mystical meaning the properly baptizing with water In the Name of the Father and the Son and the holy Ghost so as John the Baptist Peter and Paul and Philip and the Deacons and the 72 Disciples gave and ministred its so as Jerusalem and all Judea round about Jordan Christ and the Apostles the 3000. the 5000. the Eunuch Lydia
the Jaylor and the several housholds gave it and received and partaked of it It is confessed on both sides that the former baptized and the later were baptized both according to the good old way and in the right and true manner The which whether it was by Dipping and Immerging the body into and under the water or onely sprinkling and asperling or laying on and pouring the water upon some part that is the question for whereas the two mothers strove about the living child whose of the two the child should be here the two children dipping and sprinkling which I may call the twins of Rebecca or the Churches two manners of baptizing strive whose of the two the mother Baptism shall be The Church of England hath been now of a long time time out of mind mind of any man living in firm possession of baptism and practice of it by sprinkling or 〈◊〉 on of water upon the face and fore-head and gently washing and rubbing the same therewith and pronouncing the word of Institution In the name c. it is your part to bring the Writ of Ejection a word or the Examples of the word sufficient to dispossesse and eject us out of our baptism and to invest your self into the same by shewing your better title and plea of dipping and immerging the whole body in or under the water All that you can and therefore do produce for your dipping and immerging that ever I could read of are besides that derivation of the word baptism from an original word that so signifieth the three examples of John the Baptist Philip and Paul baptizing our Saviour Christ the Ethiopian Eunuch and Lydia But for that argument drawn from the derivation of the word Baptism you have heard enough already and I pray let me hear no more of it as not being of force or to the purpose unless you can shew that so it is always used in the Gospel and that wheresoever baptism was ministred there was dipping and immerging into and under the water otherwise words are of value as money is according to the esteem of men and the use of the time Nummus à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as the Poet hath it Si volet usus .. i.e. consuetudo loquendi Quem penes arbitrium est jus norma loquendi Both of which derivation and use or value of the word are for the aspersion and perfusion of water upon a part to be understood by baptism aswel if not better in sacred Writ then for immmersion or dipping of the whole body yea the word in its proper and genuine signification as well as in its derivation as I have shewed importeth but an ablution and washing with water which is ordinarily practised and performed in our good and old way of baptizing and which doth not necessarily infer or inforce your new business of dipping and immerging in and under the water the whole body cloathes and all But for your examples of Scripture for precept there is none in the Word Go and Baptise for the dipping I will set down what the Texts have and in order as the Evangelists report of Johns baptizing Christ Matth. 3.16 and straightway coming up out of the water He i.e. John saw the Heavens opened and the Spirit like a Dove descending upon him Luke 3.21 saith onely that he being baptized and praying the Heavens were opened so of Philips baptizing the Eunuch Acts 8.38 They went down both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him So of Pauls baptizing Lydia Acts 16.13 and 15. On the Sabbath he went out of the City by a Rivers side where prayer was wont to be made there Lydia hearing Paul preaching and attending was baptized All this that I hear is Text but where is that that is for your Tenet of dipping and immerging why do you not press it and argue from hence any of or all of the three Texts nay where is any intimation that any of these persons were dipped and immerged in any of these Rivers If you say there where it is said that Christ descended into the water I must tell you that 's no where expresly set down but onely by consequence because it is said He went up straightway out of the water I pray hereafter you and your brethren love good consequences better and stand not alwayes upon verbal expressions of the Scriptures for every thing It is indeed said of the Eunuch expresly That he went down into the water at his baptizing but of Lydia neither of both is said but onely that she was amongst the rest and that she was baptized by the Rivers side But what of Christs descending down into the waters If I shall argue for you and conclude hence it is onely this that therefore it was not now Harvest time when John Baptized Christ and others for Jordan overfloweth all his banks in the time of Harvest Jos 3.15 then they could not have either gone down into or have come up out of Jordan But you shall argue for your self and conclude hence if you will or can for I neither will nor can Therefore Christs body was all over dipped and immerged in Jordan under water over head and ears as you say that followeth not thence Therefore also in his cloaths tyed about him as you do nor that More probably if he was so dipt it was in his naked body and out of cloaths as before I alledged the opinion and saying of Anselme but most likely John did but either dip the head of Christ bending it downward and forward into the water not backward as you do the whole body or else with one or both his hands did pour water upon his head as he stood in Jordan which ran down and wetted his body and so for any thing I can see to the contrary John did baptize in the like manner and way all those other that came unto him And thus also Philip baptized the Eunuch in the River or Water and thus Paul baptized Lydia by the Rivers side And so this cometh up neer to our manner and way and so it will prove at last the good old way at first But did not John baptize in Aenon near to Salim because there was much water John 3.23 water enough as you think to dip and immerge all the bodies over head and ears this is but your vain collection look about the Text and you may see the drift and purpose of that How that there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the Region round about Jordan and were baptized of him Much water was requisite for such multitudes though but to lay and pour some upon every one or to sprinkle and asperse them all therewith Again if he dipped and immerged them over head and ears in their whole bodies cloathed as you do or uncloathed it must have been a tedious toilsome and over-burthensome work for one John Baptist to have taken them fast by the cloathes
in the noon-day as in the night that there is no footing or bottom in any River or Pond in Scripture for your dipping and immerging baptism How dare you then cry this up as the onely good old way of baptizing and determine that and decree it so to be even the very practice of John the Baptist and the very Acts of the Apostles and the mind of the Spirit when as it never seemed good to the holy Ghost and to them to lay upon us no greater burthen then the necessary things of which your immersion and dipping is none I am sure a burden indeed but not necessary thing sure if there had bin or were any such necessity or but conveniency thereof to the perfecting and compleating baptism as that without it baptism should not be true and right as of old the wind that bloweth where it listeth and the spirit that breatheth where it pleaseth would in some place or other of the Gospel have blown and breathed out unto us something of it nay rather hereof is a very great silence of your dipping and immerging though much speech and practice of baptizing Christ saith as elsewhere to the winde peace and be still and the spirit rather holds in its breath no words here are made no circumstances are given no consequences are to be drawn out for this dipping diving putting off or on of cloathes laying or lying down in the waters of ponds as is used by you at your baptizing But I shall now tell you that the winde bloweth fair and the spirit breatheth strongly and sweetly and that of old too for our sprinkling and aspersing Baptism and I perceive this sound from heaven will come suddenly upon you before you looked for it as of a mighty rushing winde and I wish it may fill all the house where you and your Brethren are sitting and that you would take them the Texts I mean into your considerations unless they be all spent and sent away to me in your Brothers Letter wherein he gave me so many considerations 1. Now of these Texts 1. Some are Typical as all those in the Pentateuch especially which speaks of the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices as Levit. 16.14 The Priest shall take the blood of the Bullock and shall sprinkle it before the Mercy-Seat 2. Some are Prophetical and allude unto Baptism as that of Ezek. 36.25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness by the which I mean the thing signified in and by the Baptismal-water even the cleansing blood of Christ the which David aimed at when he said also Wash me from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin and I shall be whiter then snow Psal 51.2 7. 3. Some other Texts are Mystical and represent it as Heb. 10.22 12.24 ye are come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel and again Let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Here is mention of sprinkling and washing with a reflexion upon the pure water or baptism the which another Text sheweth 1 Pet. 3.21 where he nameth Baptism where having spoken of the eight souls saved by water in the Ark He saith The like Figure whereunto even Baptism doth now also save us by the resurrection of Christ so then like as the Ark saved Noah and his family by water so doth Baptism save us by water by being washed and sprinkled therewith as they were in the Ark for so the Apostle specifieth and hath no words of dipping or immerging as not conducing to the salvation of them or of the Ark it self which may be a fifth Text or instance where that is said to be baptized which was not dipt or immerged Again 4ly 1 Pet. 1.2 the Apostle there mentioneth the sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ as the inward grace and thing signified of the outward sign and water in Baptism Now wherefore in all these or the most of these places doth the Spirit of God set forth the manner of application of Christs blood and the spiritual grace by the sprinkling it upon us but to intimate the way and maner of ministration of the baptismal-Baptismal-water the sign and seal thereof to be by the springling and aspersing it upon us Had you Sir but such a Quaternion of Souldiers as it is called Acts 12.4 four such militant Texts to stand up and fight for your dipping and immerging yea or but an Union one such Text I mean in all the Bible that did but carry the colours or bear up an Ensign a sign or but the name of dipping as they do of sprinkling how would you glory and triumph as the Philistines did when they had gotten Samson into their hands how would you call your friends and neighbours your Brethren and Sisters together especially the two last dipped saying Come rejoyce with me for I have found the piece that was lost a Text for our dipping that was at a loss But it is so still and you are at a loss for it and may be at alas also for it you may go light up a candle and sweep or sweat too and seek diligently and yet not finde a piece of Scripture one Text for your dipping and immerging into and under the water like as I have found out fair texts and pieces of Scripture for our sprinkling and perfusion of water in the time and act of baptizing For as for that Text and piece of Scripture Rom. 6.3 4. Col. 2.12 which are both one that we are buried with Christ in Baptism wherein also we are risen with him I know some do descant and discourse hereout of Immersion into Immoration under and Emersion out of the water of baptism but the Plain Song in this as in other Scripture is this onely that through baptism being truly ingrafted into Christ and made one with him we are made partakers of the merit and efficacy of his death and burial and resurrection for these are included in that to kill and mortifie bury and abolish sin and natural corruption in us Though I add also this that such representation and operation of the death burial and Resurrection of Christ and of us sinners after his example is not then at baptism required of us as which is accidental to baptism or secondarily essential neither is it primarily nor properly the inward grace signified by baptism but the ablution and washing of the soul and cleansing it from the guilt and filth of sin in that Laver of Regeneration is principally intended and primarily essential to baptism like as the putting away the filthiness of the flesh by cutting off the foreskin was to circumcision And lastly if it were so the burial and Resurrection of Christ the main thing in
margent wherewith they made Baal And so you do not or did not know that Gods first Covenant of Grace in Christ I will be thy God and the God of thy seed sealed unto you in your Infant-baptism your first Infant-baptism sealing unto you the Covenant of the Grace of God in Christ gave you your knowledge of the Truth your Conversion from your evil wayes your Repentance your Faith and increased these and other Graces in you which you and they prepare for and ascribe to their and your Anabaptism and wherewith they and you would make Anabaptism leaping upon the Altar that they have made and dousing in the Ponds that you go to crying O Baal hear us or Great is Diana of the Ephesians the dipping of the Anabaptists Why halt ye or how long O ye people halt ye between two opinions or two Baptisms 1 Kings 18.21 if your first Infant-baptism be the Seal of Gods Covenant of Grace to you follow it but if the Anabaptists second Dippism be the Seal then follow it Therefore I say farther to them the people and you not I even I onely but we even we also thousands of us remain the Ministers of the Lord and your Prophets are a great many more for every one that will with you may consecrate himself and be a Prophet we as we do will still bring our children and Infants of believing Parents unto Baptism in our Churches pouring on or sprinkling water In the name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost with invocation or calling on the Name of the Lord and do you as you use go out with your grown but born Christians men and women whom you have with-held from their Baptism in their Infancy or with other grown persons formerly baptized whom you have seduced into your by-wayes and carry them to your dippings and diving them over head and ears body cloathes in your Ponds of the field the Baptism or washing that answereth by fire I mean the Spirit 1 Kings 18.24 and spiritual Graces bringing after to Repentance from evil wayes and unto the knowledge of the Truth let that be the right washing and Baptism indeed All the people I know will and yur selves also must needs answer The word is good and it is well spoken Now then I propose and it s my major proposition most true That washing with water or Baptism which answereth by fire cavil not at the phrase God in or by Baptism I mean and hath the Graces of Gods Spirit Faith Repentance Conversion answerable and following thereupon is that and that onely which is mentioned in the Scriptures as of Gods Institution so conjunction Mat. 3.11 Mark 1.8 Acts 2.38 John 3.6 and in a great many other places which formerly I have brought shewing the correspondence or accompanying the one of or to and after the other the Baptism and the Spirit But I assume and it is my minor proposition yet no less true That neither of your two dippings I call them two in respect of the Subjects which are of two sorts some formerly baptized and some not are to be found in any part of Scripture throughout the whole Bible either instituted of God or conjoyned with fire or the Spirit as my whole Book and this annexed Treatise or Censure hath cleared demonstrated And therefore I may conclude Negatively against your diping by Anabaptists that it answereth not by fire and so you have received from them and it nothing but water no fire no Spirit no Grace no Regeneration no Conversion no plucking out of your evil wayes into the knowledge of the Truth What you have of these Goods or Graces in present you have and received as sparks at your first Baptism in your Infancy which being according to the Scriptures and to Gods Ordinance and Institution answereth by Fire in all Gods elect children as who are inwardly also baptized of the Spirit whch is the fire I mean and speak of which answering also by fire in them afterwards sheweth their Baptism in Infancy to have been according to the Scripture Gods Ordinance and Institution To come up yet closer to you If you Sir be one of those that belong unto the Election and Covenant of Grace as I in charity judged of you as I ought to do when I baptized you and gave you Baptism as the seal of the Covenant then were you baptized with fire i. e. the Spirit as well as water the inward Grace being united to the outward Sign unto such and the Spirit as truly and really and actualy applying the merits and blood of Christ in the justifying and sanctifying vertue unto your soul as I did the water to your body or bodily part of your face or forehead and the invisible Grace of the Sacrament was conveyed to you by such visible means so that if you had dyed in your Infancy this your Baptism had been to you supposing you still an Elect Infant as a seal of the Righteousness of Christ extraordinarily applied by the holy Ghost to your Justification and Salvation God hath now suffered you to live to years of discretion I must therefore put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift or Grace of God which is in you as Paul speaketh to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.6 I cannot say by the putting on of my hands but I may by the pouring on of that water with my hands The word in the original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up that fire of the Spirit I spake of and to quicken up the grace of Baptism that hath lien under the ashes throughout your youthful and sinful dayes of ignorance that so now it may kindle and burn brighter in you You are now to bestir your self in reading the Word and hearing it preached by such Ministers as God sendeth into the Church and amongst them him especially who baptized you at first that so you may come to Faith by such means and by Faith now actually lay hold on the promises of the Covenant of Grace touching Justification Remission and Adoption and enjoy them to your use and comfort which were but made and sealed in your Baptism as to every Elect Childe of God and estated upon you on Gods part as to your Right and Title I do not say that your Baptism properly did give you or primarily the Right and Interest you have unto God and Christ Gods free Covenant and promise did it but it sealed up onely and mainly confirmeth that Right and Interest which you had already even then in Gods Govenant and Promise Gods Word is as good as his Bond and his Promise as effectual as his Seal your Baptism as the other Sacrament was not for the strengthning or effectualizing of Gods Covenant but to the confirming and supporting your faith in apprehending it I would make this very plain to you hoping it may be for some good to you Suppose an Estate made over unto you in your Infancy by a Will and Testament under Seal you
you have done fighting with the Papists that we are agreed about them two to be but one and the same baptism I could tell you that the Apostle here writing to the Hebrews alluded to their old Legal Washings Ablutions and Baptismes minding them of thens but wishing them withall to lay them by and mind the one Evangelical baptism and the sprinkling of Christs blood the which they did but typifie or look at So still but one baptism I could tell you that the baptismes here meant are those I must speak three words more of Human Latine for the words sake because of the elegancy of them Fluminis Flaminis Songuinis But I will turn them into divine English words for yoru sake of Water Fire Blood For there as I said before is an outward baptism which is the washing of the flesh with Water by the Minister and there is an inward baptism which is washing of the Soul with the blood of Christ by the Holy Ghost these are baptismes indeed and here meant but in all Gods true Children they meet in one baptism and they come from God as one baptism entirely made up of these two sorts the outward and inward for that baptism which is of blood mentioned by Christ and mentioned to his two Disciples are ye able to be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with and resolved for them ye shall indeed be baptised with such baptism Matth. 20.22 It is nothing but a constant suffering and conflicting in Christs cause even unto Blood and the suffering of Martyrdom for his sake But I will call in again for Beza whom as before I stiled an interpreter of Luke and that Text Acts 19.5 according to his heart Though he confessed he learned the interpretation of Marnixius so here also I may stile him an interpreter of Luke again and of this Text Heb. 6.2 according to his heart the which interpretation also he learned of Calvin who saith to this purpose an interpreter of those Apostles and Prophets he commented upon according to their hearts though here Beza doth not acknowlege so much There was a right and Custom in the Church Primitive of administring many baptismes upon certain set dayes which set dayes were after appoynted to be Easterday and Whitsunday especially when many Catehumens and New Converts were wont to meet together for baptism These therefore were called Dayes of Baptismes as appears out of the writings of the Antient both Greeks and Latines so still it was but one and the same baptism was conferred upon every one though called baptismes because so many received baptism together upon one day like as sometime in London six seaven and more Children partake of baptism together at one time And now Sirs are you Masters in Israel and know not these things are you Dippers and know not these Baptismes and wheras for the time ye ought not to be Teachers for that ye have need that one Teach you which be the first Principles of the doctrine of Christ learn that this doctrine of Baptismes is the third of them the principles and that it containeth nothing of two Baptismes our baptising Christians born in their infancy and your baptising Christians born in their grown age and least of all for your rebaptising our baptised Infants when you have made them your Proselytes upon a confession of Faith What though our Children be baptised in ignorance of God they are yet baptised in Covenant with God if that be a reason with you they must be dipt again and rebaptised when they come to knowledge why were not the Apostles so when better instructed who were ignorant of the Messias and his kingdom the death the resurrection of Christ will you put your self Sir or your learned Dippers themselves upon the tryall and if you be found ignorant of divers principles of the doctrine of Christ and even fundamental poynts will you be instructed and Redipped Alasse Sirs if as often as God shall shew you the errors of your Minds and the enormities of your lives you must be dipping redipping dripping redripping every Year Moneth and Day No there is another baptism to be used in these cases eyē the washing the soul with the tears of repentance dip re-dip drip re-drip in these and renew your repentance dayly With what a bold face high hand dare you Sir be either dipt your self now twice as I hear or be a dipper of others again as you intend of those whom you have inveigled seduced away into your Scism Heresie being before rightly validly baptised is not this a multiplying so a vilifying of that ōe baptism What example have you in all the Word of God of any Infant Jew re-circumcised when he came to an ability of professing Faith and will you tempt God to put a yoak upon the neck of the Disciples of Christ which neither our Fathers nor we were able to bear Telling us it is needful to baptise baptised Christistians again when they come to be believers whē it was not needful yea sinful to circumcise Jewes circumcised when they came to be the like Even when Ziphorah a Woman had circumcised her child Exod. 4. Moses himself allowed it for good and lawfull and never did he or any other iterate that circumcision in present or afterwards upon the profession of its faith and when any went over from being Samaritans who worshipped they knew not what as who knew not Jesus Christ to become Jews John 4. or came over to Christ and to the faith of him none of them were ever baptised again as Beleevers Your duplicate of baptism doth not only oppose the one and single baptism of the Apostle but brings Christans under a Tax and layeth a new yoak upon their necks as I said before Besides To be baptised is to be born anew into the Church no man naturally can be twice or often born every Nicodemus can say Can he enter the second time into his Mothers Womb and be born Iohn 3. Why then twice baptised being once baptised sufficiently and truly By baptism Children are admitted into the heavenly society of Saints and no man civilly can be adopted often into any ones stock or family Genesis 48. Ephraim and Manasses were but once adopted and assumed by Iacob into his stock for his Children and why then twice baptised When of Married Persons one forsakes another returns again into Love both are reconciled they do not enter into a new conjugal Covenant by any solemne Celebration of new espousals because the first conjunction stands firm the reconciliation made The baptism of Christians is as the celebration of the Contract betwixt them and Christ the Bridegroom when such a one through open abnegation or other hainous sins departing away from Christ returns again with and by a serious repentance there will be no need of being baptised again and so a new sealing of that Covenant which being once entred into is still
found even of all which are done throughout the whole life Ambrose the Bishop of Millain by whom Augustine was Converted and Baptized in his Book of Abraham the Patriark lib. For the year 381. 2. Chap. 11. writing upon those words unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit See saith he Christ excepts none not the Infant not the prevented by some necessity c. Every age is obnoxious to sin therefore every age is fit for the Sacrament So also in his Epistle ad Demetriadem Virginem he mention eth the Baptism of Children Epist 84. lib. 10. speaking in that Epistle against Pride and Boasting of some especially Hearetiques and shewing the evill effects thereof to the defending false opinions extenuating of evil and sin and the evacuating of some good gives these two Instances amongst others Hence the sin of Adam is affirmed to hurt his Posterity by example not by passage or transition into them Hence is that Evacuation of the Baptism of little Children as if they should be said to have Adoption given there but not to be absolved from their guilt and again Though little ones not Baptized may or should be saved yet great is the negligence of those that hindeed their Baptizing In his Book de vocat lib. 2. cap. 8. he mentioneth Baptism of Children three or four times and once thus They speak very ill and unjurly of little Children who say Grace hath there what it may Adopt but the water hath not there what it may wash away speaking of such as deoyed sin in little Children Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Camqania For the year 379. a man famous for Poetry and Eloquence Piety and munificence a good acquaintance of Augustine and Hierom betwixt whom and Him there passed sundry Epistles a great favorite and familiar of Ambrose whose life he wrote as also of Sulpitius Severus to whom he wrote 14. Epistles As the Beginning of the twelfe Epistle to the same Sulpitius Severus hath these two verses whhich for your sake I must be fain to tranflate into English Thence from the Sacred Font the Priest did lead it The Infant white in body heart and habit Epiphanius For the year 376. In his first Book Haer. 8. The Figures were in the Law the Truth in the Gospel Circumcision which served for a time gave place to the Great Circumcision which is Baptism which Circumciseth us from sin and Sealeth us into the Name of God In His Book against the Cerinthians Circumcision had its time untill the Great Circumcision came that is the washing of the New-birth as is manifest to every one Surely he meant that which the Apostle calls so that is Baptism the washing or Laver of Regeneration and by calling Baptism the Great Circumcision he must intend Infant Baptism as Infant-Circumcision and speaks of them as of things manifest and wel-known the Carnal or fleshly Baptism as Circumcision In the end of his work calls Baptism and other mysteries observed in the Church which are brought out of the Gospel and setled by Apostolique Authority Traditions and then in his Time Baptism was ministred to Infants and observed Gregory Nazianzene For the year 375. In his 40. Oration of Holy Baptism largely speaketh of it the brief is in the Question and Answer What say ye of those who are of tender Age and perceive neither dammage or Grace shall we Baptize those Yes surely if any danger be it is better to be Sanctified without sense and feeling then to depart without the Seal and Initiation Circumcision bearing in a manner the figure of Baptism was offered to them who were void of Reason c. calleth also Baptism the Seal or Signet to such as enter into the Race of Life Basil the Great For the year 372. Bishop of Caesarea 1 Tom. Exhortation to Baptism wherein though the Baptism of Infants is not named yet I find these words There is a proper and peculiar time for this and that as for sleep for watching for warring the Time for Baptism is the whole life of man which he proves at large and again without Baptism there is no light to the Soul and then adds the Jew was compelled or forced to Circumcision because every soul which was not Circumcised the eighth day was to be cut off wilt thou defer the Circumcision not made with hands which is performed by Baptism in the putting of the flesh When wilt thou be a Christian Athanasius Q. 91. For the year 325. Of the Sayings and Interpretation of Scripture We dip or put the Infant thrice into the water and thrice bring it out insignification of the death and resurrection of Christ upon the third day I shall also here set down an answer of his Quest 2. to Antiochus because it confirmes what I have writ before of Infants having the Holy Spirit How shall we know that the Infant was truly Baptized and received the Holy Ghost in Holy Baptism when it was a Child but the answer is long and shall not need because I would be short The Question is enough to the purpose and sheweth both that Athanasius held both Infant-Baptism and therein affirmed them to receive the Holy Spirit the very question makes it unquestionable as to him Again in his Treatise of the Sabbath and Circumcision Hee calls Circumcision a type of Baptism Cyprian Bishop of Carthage and a Martyr For the year 247. The higher we go the cleerer the light shines for the Baptism of Infants for now here Cyprian with 66 Colleagues all Bishops do in a Councel at Carthage decree for it and so Certifieth his Friend Fidus in an Epistle to him third Book of Epistles Ep. 8. Yea that whole Epistle written by Cyprian and his 66 Colleagues sitting in Council with him The Title of it is of Infants to be Baptized and the subject of the whole Epistle is to justifie the Baptizing of them and answereth the objections of Fidus. As to the Cause the Baptism of Infants we all have judged that the mercy and Grace of God is not to be denyed to any Child born of man c. and that there is the same equallity of grace for the young Infant as the Elder God is no respecter of personages nor ages Yea he gives divers reasons why Infants and the rather and the sooner because Infants should be Baptized which for brevity sake I leave out here as who am onely upon the shewing having proved the Baptism of Infants before the Custom and Practice of Antiquity herein This Epistle also is owned and avouched both by Hierome Au-Augustine to be the true Epistle of Cyprian by Hierom as above is said and by Augustine Epistle 28. unto Hierome saying Cyprian did not here devise a New decree but kept and observed the true Faith or the faithful Practice and Custom of the Church Yea this Epistle of Cyprian was a very strong ground for them both to stand upon and they very much relyed
upon it for the strengthening themselves in their own opinion of Infant-Baptism Origen the Schollar and Disciple of Clemens Alexandrinus For the year 204. so forward a Schollar that at eighteen years of his age he set up a School and taught others in his fift Book to the Rom. 6. c. the Church hath received the Tradition from the Apostles even or also to little Children to give Baptism because in them as in all are the Genuine or ingenerated filths of sin the which ought to be washed with water and the Spirit Somewhat more of this there is in his eighth Book upon Levit 8. Homil. and upon Luke Homil. 14. Tertullain whom Cyprian read so diligently and esteemed so highly For the year 195. that in all matters of doubt he would have recourse to him saying Give me my Master meaning Tertullian in his Book of Baptism chap. 18. According to the Condition disposition and also age of every person the delaying of Baptism is more profitable especially in and about Infants for what necescessity is there if it be not so necessary to bring the suerties into danger of not performing their promise and whether this be meant of the Children which were not born of Christian Parents as some will or of the Children of believing Parents as others say its evident that Baptism was administred in all ages and he intimates the Custom and practice of the Church in his age to Baptize them even Children as well as others Though he seems not to be so well pleased with it and yet again the words import no other then that he denyed the Necessity onely of Baptism to them being out of danger of death not simply the Baptizing of them rather as in another place he doth imply they ought to be Baptized if there be danger or fear that afterwards they may not or cannot be Baptized in his Book of the Soul Chap. 39. and 40. where he saith that Infants of believing Parents or one Parent have such a Sanctity and that from the Privilege of their Birth not the discipline of their bringing up as gives them a Right to Baptism Therefore Tertullain calleth the Children of Believers The designees or destinates of Holiness or as elsewhere the Candidates of Holiness and so here is an evidence for that Birth Holiness or foederal Holiness of which I shall speak anon out of the 2 of Acts. Irenaeus 2 Book For the year 170. Chap. 39. He came to save all by himself I say all who are born again by him into God Infants and little ones and Children and yong men and old men c. The intention of the words is of Christ Jesus who as it followeth there went through every age to Infants made an Infant Sanctifying Infants to little ones made a little one sanctifying those of that age but you see there is an expression of Infants of whom he saith they are born again into or unto God that is Baptized for so Baptism is usually stiled by the Ancients especially the Greeks a Renascence or New Birth or Palingensy as might be shewed out of Athanasius and Basil who took it from the Apostolique manner also of speaking Tit. 3.5 as before I mentioned I can go no higher for Irenaeus was the Schollar and Disciple of Polycarpus and Polycarpus was the Schollar or Disciple of John the Evangelists and to you see I am come up to the very skirts and thresholds of the Apostolique Churches and Primitive Times with the Custom and Practice of Baptizing Infants Some go yet higher to Justin Martyr quaest resp ad orthod qu. For the year 130 90 60 56. and so to Clemens the Roman Bishop in his Apostolical constit lib. 6. cap. 15. and to Dyonisius Areopagita in his Eccles Hietarchy Ch. last And indeed there are pregnant places in them for Baptizing Infants if the Authors were Legitimate they are so good and sufficient against the Papists who own them and maintain them for true and Genuine but with us they are held to be suppositions and spurious and though many good and true things are in them as Infant-Baptism c. Yet they are not belonging to such venerable Names as those I have rchearsed and therefore not of that Antiquity with them and so impertinent to my purpose Onely one thing I must ad to satisfie the Reader why on this side of Augustine towards the Apostles I have mentioned no more of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church seeing there were many more or what were they discrepant in their opinion about the Baptism of Infants no sure the reason must needs be this they all lived long before Pelagius came out from the Brittish Seat and gathered to himself a Sect of Locusts which spread over the world and troubled the Churches with this matter for one they denying the Traduction of originall sin in Infants Therefore those Ancient Fathers of the Church having no occasion to intermeddle with any such matters about Infant-Baptism kept close onely to such controversies and questions as were on foot in their dayes save onely that Cyprian as I touched before was questioned hereabouts the silence of those Fathers that touched not upon it gives consent to the Practice as unquestioned by them but God would put words of it it to the mouthes of some of them to be witnesses unto posterity of the Antiquity of Infant-Baptism and the Churches Practice The like answer may be given why in those two General Councels the Nicene and the Constantinopolitan and some other Provincial ones which were before Augustine nothing is touched upon in their Canons about Baptism of Infants except that of Cyprian and his 66 Colleagues before mentioned because it was at a thing never in question amongst them never opposed by any and yet that was a very sruitful age of haeretical weeds springing up in those purer times witness the Munichees Arrians Donatists Macedonians Aaerians Eunomians Luciferians c. amongst all which not an Antipaedobaptist not any that so much as made scruple at it which sure some or other in malice or envy to the Church would have done if they could have found how to have shaken that as they did all other Foundations of Christinaity But after Augustines time when Pelagius arose Then the Councils came in against him thick and threefold as the Milevitane or Council of Carthage in the year 402. 418. Canon 11. and the Gerundense Council held in Spain 518. Can. 5. and the Bracarense Council the 2. 572. Can. 7. And so the Fathers and Doctors of the Church are ever and anon storming of Pelagius and his adhaerents And now Sir I know all this Labor is lost as to you who are and desire to be but a man of to day and for ever but for yesterday or Antiquity there you will leave even Christ and his Church and go no farther you are none of the old Martiald Souldiery but the New Modell'd Militia and yet you may remember how you began
day of the week to be the Christian Sabbath or for divers other such things that I name not And yet I have something more to shew you than a Rational and Consequential Command for Infant-Baptism There is also an Analogical I had almost added Typical Command for the same our Infant Baptism For Go a Command to Abraham and the Jewes to circumcise their Infants the Seal then in force and for that time of the Law The same Command binds us Christians to baptise our Infants the Seal now in force and for this time of the Gospel binds us I say by the just Analogy and Proportion that is between the two Sacraments and Seals of one and the same Covenant especially the one Baptism succeeding the other Circumcision Suppose a Jesuit who is of late in many poynts Anabaptised like as you Anabaptis are in as many Jesuited should oppose you and deny your Baptism of Beleevers onely to be a Seal as indeed he doth so denies both your and our Baptismes and the Lords Supper to be Seals or Signes will you not look back to Circumcision in the Old Testament where it is called a Seal and Sign for in the New Testament they are no where called either and thence fetch an Analogical proof that ours are also Seals our Baptism ard their Circumcifion agreeing in the General-Nature of a Sacrament By the like Analogy being questioned by you for a Command of Infant Baptism in the New Testament if there be none there I may go over to the Command of Infant Circumcision in the Old Testament and thence prove ours also our Infant-Baptism to be commanded and us therein bound and obliged to put the Initial Seal of the New Testament upon our Children Once more Do you think that Gods Command to Abraham and the Jewes to train up their Children in manner of worship which was then in force doth also command and bind us Christians to train up our Children in conformity to such Ordinances as are now in force I beleeve you think so and therefore I think you will beleeve at last that Gods Command to Abraham and the Jewes to Circumcise their Children and to give them the Seal of Circumcision then in force is also a Command upon us Christians binding us to baptize our Infants and to minister unto them the Seal of Baptism now in sorce And so now this is the use I told you besore I was like to make of your answering That the Jewish Children were circumcised onely by vertue of a particular Commandent of God for the same I say this use I may and shall make of it that by Vertue or Vice of such you answer I infer also there from yea therein a particular Command for baptising Christians Children there being such an Analogy and proportion between the two Sacraments of one and the same Covenant in the Essentials of it and the Rationals of it unto the eternal good of Souls This might be good enough against you because it answers you in your kind and meets with you in your own way howsoever my self still hold that the Jewish Infants were circumcised Circumcision being the Seal thereof and so both inforced by a Commandement or Word of Institution as I have said before But romember this also that Gods Commandement being out for Circumcising Infants whose Parents were under the Seal and no farther by the same reasons you blame our practice of baptising Infants you blame God for such a Command which you plead for the Circumcising Infants because Infants of Jewes were as much under state of Nature as Infants of Christians are and Infants of Christians are as much under the state of Grace as the Infants of Jewes If God were wise and good in commanding circumcising of Infants then we cannot be evil and foolish in practising Baptism of Infants commanded also here But because you New-light men regard not much the Old Testament for that it holds forth the Old-light of the command for circumcising of Infants by the which walking there may be proportioned out or Analogised a command for Baptising of Infants I will set upon a Text or two of the New Testament and that famous one first wherein you much delighted of old and from whence you would seem to have your New light it is Matthew 28.19 and 20. Methinks I hear you saying already with Nathaniel Can there come any good thing out of 2 Nazareth John 1.46 7. Chap. any command out of these words for Infant Baptisms Come and see and hear and whilest I am as Philip bringing forth some good thing hence for poor Infanrs be you as Nathaniel An Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile and not an Ishmaelite indeed in whom there is nought but mocking at young Isaacks devotions and young Childrens Baptisms Gen. 21.9 1. I may safely say here in this command of Christ is nothing meant or minded by him about your taking Children of Beleevers already baptised in our Church where the Gospel is planted and your rebaptising them again after your teaching them and their professing For the Baptism here commanded and to be executed was onely of Nations where the Gospel was not yet planted to be taught and baprised once 2. I may as safely say That the state of those Pagan Gentiles being not the same in poynt of Religion as is the state of us Christian Gentiles as is said above how can their as yet untaught and ungospelised their uncovenanted unbaptised condition and be a rule and precedent to a Taught Guspelised Covenanted baptised Nation already So Christs command here doth not infringe or counter command our Infant-Baptism yes you may say for doth not Christ command all Nations to be taught before they be baptised He doth so all pagan Nations who were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise Ep. 2.12 Without God in the world being carried away to dnmb Idols 1 Cor. 12. What is this to us but yet 3. I must tell you That this Commandement of Christ placing teaching before baptising doth not pronounce Christian Infants unbaptisealbe because unteachable if there be any such force of Argument from the order and placing of words I pray argue so out of Mark 1.1 Where Repentance is placed before faith and out of John 3.5 Where the Water is set before the Spirit Saint Peter will tell you that the Spirit goeth before the Water Acts 10.47 and you can tell your self that Repentance followeth after Faith as the fruit thereof again it is not to be read here first teach then baptise Christ doth not shew here which ought to go first and which last but leaves both to be done according to the condition of the Church for if it ba a Church planted and Christian as ours it then they are to be baptised and after instructed if a Church to be planted Heathenish then they are to be first taught then baptised Now the condition of
matters thereabout do the same here look often back to thy Baptism wherein the will of thy heavenly Father which is this I will be thy God is delivered and sealed and thou wilt be well resolved comforted and cleered in all Estates and Conditions Onely look back also to and remember as often the obligation of Homage and stipulation of obedience wherewith thou hast bound thy self to God by thy suerties or prelenters of thee to Baptism now thou knowest and understandest it thou must stand to it nd make it good thy part of the Indentures perform the Order of Baptism on thy side which is to turn to God and believe in Christ and be continually renewing of thy Faith and repentance and then there shall be no need of any second Baptism or washing in water having the benefit and efficacy of and from the same Baptism at first For this also I will tell thee for thy farther comfort that the benefit and efficacy of Baptism extendeth it self to all actual sins like as originall to the whole course of the life of man whensovever he shall believe and repent and is not to be restrained to the time of the Birth and Infancy so after the administration of it Baptism hath the same force it hath before or in the time of its administring for Baptism is of force so long as the Covenant is of force and that is everlasting Esay 54.10 Hos 2.19 The Papists indeed will tell you as I have mentioned already that your Baptism will serve you only for Remission of sins done before it meaning your originall sin and so call your Baptism the first Table for Refuge as from it and for sins done after Baptism you must have their Sacrament of Pennance or Repentance which they call a second Table for Refuge like as the Anabaptists tell you you must have their Sacrament of Confession as I may call their second Baptism which they Minister upon Confession of Faith But I tell you both are needless and superfluous for your one first single Baptism supplyeth all you need no New Sacraments for the matter as whose force and efficacy though the rite and Ceremony were gone in an instant doth extend it self to your whole life time and to all sins to be a seal unto you of the Remission of all original and actual past and to come so you will still have recourse unto it and make application of the grace thereof offered and sealed to you on Gods part For I do not mean nor must you think that the bare and empty Review or Remembrance of your Baptism that such an outward Act was done will be unto you at all times a Remission of your sins but it must be an effectual application of the blood of Christ which is the virtue and power of it that will do it and this may be and is done in the confession of your sins and the profession so your faith I may rather speak more properly than they do and say that your Baptism is not so only the first Table for Refuge after Shipwrack and Repentance the second but that Baptism is the first and one long drawing Table that may and must be drawn out at length into the Two Leaves of it namely into and unto Repentance of sin and confession of Faith at or upon which rightly used and applyed you and all true believers and penitent sinners may sit down and find plenty and provision of grace and mercy or which not so much as a Table or Plank but as the Ark and Ship it self will save you as Saint Peter saith So then let the effects and fruits of your first Baptism be acted and exercised by you aad let the force and efficacy thereof be seen in the reformation of your whole life for Baptism is a seal of a dying to sin and a rising unto Newness of Life Rom. 6.4 as well as a Seal of the Remission of sin Mark 1.4 and then you shall need no second Baptism and if not your first will be frustrated and yet you can have no second and I may say unto you Christians ye stiffnecked and unbaptized in heart and eares as Stephen doth the Jewes ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart ears when as you do not express the force and vertue of your first Baptism as they did not of their first Circumcision in the renovation and reformation of your hearts and eares i.e. life and actions Therefore when the Jews fell away from God at any time and were called to Confession of sin or profession of Faith the Prophets did not propound unto them a new or second Circumcision as if the former were voyded or vacated but onely mind them of their first and onely Circumcision and their Obligation in their Infancy bidding them to Circumcise the fore-skin of their hearts and to practice the inward Circumcision in conversion to God the spiritual and inward part of that Sacrament And so the Apostles used to call them that had sinned after Baptism as the Galathians by name who had fallen from the Grace of the Gospel to confession of sin and repentance to believe in Christ telling them of their Baptism into Christ so bringing and reducing them to that foretaken by them and the order set down there which is already mentioned nor do we read either in Prophet or Apostle of any other new order required afterwards of the Baptizing them again but only a renewing of their Faith and Repentance the Order and Obligation of their first and once Baptism by the Ministry of the word and that other Sacrament the Supper of the Lord. In a word learn now to practice thy Baptism the inward part of it to which appertains Repentance and Faith and so look not only back to it but into it an find out there thy ingagement and restipulation and perform that now that thou art come to knowledge thereof and walk before God in true obedience and in good resistance and abrenuntiation of the Devill and all his works For I would not such a looking back to thy Baptism as may put a vain confidence in the cutward element received by thee such a Respect or Contemplation of Baptism as to trust in the Elements is a misapplication of it through corruption and may well indeed occasion sin and encourage thee to a certain libertinisin licentiousnest in life there are some who being reproved for their swearing drunkenness and whordom take Sanctuary at their Baptism as if it assured men wilfully trading in sin of the remission of it without Repentance and Faith but rest not thou in the outward Letter or Element of the water but study the Spirit and walk in the Holiness of the same Repent of every breach of Covenant and this Repentance will be as a second plank or board after such Shipwrack to carry thee to the Haven of Happiness like as thy Baptism was a first step and stair of thy entrance into the visible Church and set
persons in the Church holy and so reputed by the Apostle to be by their being in and under the holy Covenant of God or by being children of a believing Parent or Parents in Covenant may and ought to have the holy Initial Seal of that Covenant which in the Gospel is Baptism But all infants in the Church of believing Parents are such persons holy and so reputed by the Apostle to be by their being in and under the holy Covenant or by being children of a believing Parent or Parents in Covenant Therefore all infants in the Church may and ought to have the holy initial Seal of the Covenant which in the Gospel is Baptism You will now Sir of your self I shall not need to urge or advise you being experienced and practised often before therein now the eighth time with much facility deny the conclusion For the first Proposition you cannot deny it being grounded out of that Text Act. 10.47 where Peter saith Can any man forbid water that those should not be Baptized who have received the holy Spirit and as is largely explained and proved before as also upon this Reason deducible hence that where holiness is the Spirit is and where the Spirit is Christ is and where Christ is the Covenant is and where the Covenant is the Seal initial namely Baptism may and ought to be For the second Proposition you cannot deny it being the expresse affertion of Paul here But now they are holy namely their children And whereas I have put in my whole Discourse all these my eight or nine Arguments into the form of a Syllogism I have done is the better to inform you to which you pretend to be willing in the close of your Letter I hope you will taste it now at last the better though savouring much of our University Arts and Humane learning as consonant and agreeing subservient and conducing to the Divine wisedom and of good use for the understanding and Expounding of the Scriptures written in the learned Tongues and Languages and often referring to Moral and Phylosophical matters of which I have spoken largely before and should not have mentioned again but that you have another fling at the same in the close of your Letter saying that it appears that the most learned by Humane learning want the learning of the Spirit to interperate interpret Scripture It is true that some of the learned by Humane learning may and do want the learning of the Spirit to interpret Scripture but do not more of the ignorant by their Humane ignorance much more want the same yet none of the learned and much less of the most learned do by humane learning as you must mean though you point not your words with any Comae's or Colons for want of Humane learning by Humane learning I say want the learning of the Spirit seeing the Spirit of God hath both taught it at first as the Author of it and made much use of it practising some of it in the Scripture and as Hagar and Sarah may dwell together in the same house humane learning as you call it and the learning of the Spirit may keep together in the same head-house so long as Hagar is an obedient handmaid to her Mistris Sarah and Humane learning humbly submits and is servant or subservient unto the learning of the Spirit and the Misteries of it But of this matter there is enough written before and how it should now at the last appear to you that the most learned by Humane learning do want the learning of the Spirit to interpret Scripture if you mean it of those who interpret the Scriptures for Infant-Baptism against you it is marvelous to me for I will instance but in this one and last interpretation of 1 Cor. 7.14 But now they are holy We interpret it holy federally as who are born in Covenant with God and of a believing Parent or Parents in Covenant with God and so are not unclean as the Gentiles out of Covenant but you interpret it holy legitimally as who are lawfully born of Parents in wedlock according to the Law and so are not unclean as bastards born out of wedlock now do you remember your words four times repeated in one of your pages I will repeat them once more for you but to you Judge you but judge you righteous judgement for God will judge you I say whether of the interpretations savours most of Humane learning or the learning of the Spirit yours or ours doth it not clearly appear to your eyes that your interpretation is a meer Humane natural carnal political interpretation and such as you can bring no word or example for from the learning of the Spirit the Scriptures where holy are called or meant legitimates and unclean bastards and therefore it is a meer Humane learning and not agreeable to the learning of the Spirit nay repugnant to it for by the learning of the Spirit all bastards are not unclean nor all legitimates holy But our interpretation is a very Divine gracious spiritual Ecclesiastical interpretation and such as I have brought both word and example for from the Scriptures the learning of the Scriptures where all in Covenant with God or born of Christians or one Christian Parent are stiled holy and all childeren born out of Covenant or of Parents both Heathens are called unclean and therefore ours is the very learning of the Spirit to take your words now out of your mouth and put them into ours as justly I may according to the minde of the Spirit as who declared unto us in the Scriptures and we from it to you that all Covenanters born of Covenanters with God are holy and all out of Covenant and born of such as are out of Covenant are unclean And so now by this as indeed by all or most of the Scriptures that you have made use of throughout your whole Letter which rather you have made an abuse of it will appear yea doth that your self is one of them the most learned by Humane learning certainly Sir for all your talk against it you have been at the University and gotten up some Humane learning and are a great Practitioner therein as appears by this and your other interpretations yea I take you to be a man if not a Master of Arts and Humane learning more than of the learning of the Spirit though pretending to this more a better Humanist than Divine or rather an Alchymist who can extract out of the Spirits holy in Scripture the spirit and flesh to a child lawfully born and out of spirits unclean the quintessence of a bastard Do you call this the learning of the Spirit to Interperate Scriptures with all for so you write and shew your self to be good at expounding as you are at spelling your Orthography and Orthodoxy being both alike do you interpret the Scripture by your learning of the Spirit no sure you Interperate interpret Scripture rather by the ignorance and illiterature of
how quickly it hath made you a right and perfect Scribe and taught you the art and skill and practice too of your master which is to pervert Scripture wresting it to your own ill intents and purposes and worsting it against its own good meaning and sense For all this that you have cited here The accusation of a new thing may justly and manifestly still lie against you for your dipping whilst there goeth along with them and their conquering the Revelation of a new song or that new song of the Revelation But I must remember that I have entitled this to be a word and work of Catechising the Dipper as I have Instructed the Scribe And instead of many Quaeres which I received I shall give but these four Questions 1. Was not the person dipping a new thing 2. Persons dipped a new thing 3. Place where a new thing 4. And the very Dipping it self for the 1. Action 2. Maner a new thing If either of them be such then let this be my first Catechistical Quaere to you of the person Dipping and tell me or shew me Quaere 1. What warrant you have from any precept or example in facred Scripture or succeeding Primitive Antiquity for one Lay-Breother no Minister called or ordained to be the Dipper or Bapitzer of another or any Paul indeed Baptized Crispus and Gaius and the houshold of Stephanas 1 Cor. 1.14 16. The same Paul baptized the jaylor and all his and a certain woman named Lydia Acts 16.14 33. Peter baptized Cornelius and his houshold Acts 10.48 So Ananias baptized Saul Acts 9.18 Philip baptized the people of Samaria and Simon the sercerer Acts 8.12 13. And the three thousand souls which were added unto the Church were baptized by the twelve Apostles with the assistance of the seventy two Disciples Acts 2.38 41. And so the Commission was given by Christ to the Apostles as of Preaching so of Baptizing Mat. 28.19 20. And so it was from the beginning The first Baptist was John who baptized all them of Judea and Jerusalem and Christ himself and his Disciples Now John I know and Philip I know and Ananias I know and Paul I know and Peter I know and the twelve Apostles I know and the seventy two Disciples I know and the seven Deacons I know that they were servants of the most High sent and appointed of God to shew unto us the way of salvation and to minister the holy Ordinances Acts 16.17 Acts 10.15 But who are ye Ye that go for Dippers And whereas it is said that Peter commanded them tob e baptized it seems that together with Peter some other Brethren also present there either assisted in bringing water or it may be in pouring on water or aspersing therewith the houshold of Cernelius but at the command and call of Peter and God chiefly who had baptized them before with the holy Spirit Besides they the Brethren were some such of the Disciples who had before an ordinary calling to such like work if not here they had extraordinary to this in present Thus John 1.25 the Pharisees I wonder how the Scribes hypocrites kept off for if as usually they had been here joyned then you and yours had been here fetcht in in their scrupling at John resolved the point saying unto him Why baptizest thou then if thou be not that Christ nor Elias nor that Prophet And at the 33. verse John sheweth his Authority namely his Mission He that sent me to baptize with water The Baptist was of Gods sending nay when Johns disciples came and told him saying Rabbi He that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witness behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him John answered and said A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven John 3.26 27. So giving us a rule in general first No man can lawfully baptize except he be authorized from above that is sent of God So at 34. ver he applieth and expoundeth in the particular of himself as before so here of Christ He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God And thus the Author to the hebrews Chap 5. ver 4. giveth both the same Rule in general No man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Also maketh the application in particular to Christ ver 5. So also Christ glirified not himself to be made an high priest but he that said Thou art my son he said also Thou art a priest c. To circumcise was a ward of the Legal and to baptize of the Evangelical Keyes and they belonged onely to the Priests and Apostles and their successors in both admiministrations So then still I ask the Question Who are ye who take upon you I hope not to call over them which have evil spirits the name of the Lord saying We adjure you by Jesus yet to call over them whom ye think to have the holy Spirit The name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost saying We baptize you in the name of these § 1. Your answer is They are Brethren set apart by fasting and prayer of the Church to administer holy Ordinances But if this would do it that they are Brethren and that they are set apart why do ye not all at times become Dippers for ye are all spearate Brethren there is but one letter less and as little literature in a brother separate then or as in a brother sot apart And if truly set apart to administer holy Ordinances why do they not give over as in ordinary their secular Trades and Laicall Callings and wholly or chiefly tend upon such Administrations unto which they are set apart for so is both the precept and example of the word you so much pretend to Separate me Barnabas and Sakl for the work whereunto I have called them Acts 13.2 Give thy self wholly unto them i.e. Reading Doctrine Exhortation and the Gifts given thee 1 Tim. 4.15 It is not meet we should leave the Word of God and serve Tables Acts 6.2 and much less Stalls § 2. If set apart by or of whom I pray by and of the Church you say and what Church do you mean sure your own small private company of Believers or be you a great publique multitude of them And now are you not again out of the good old way yes sure for Christ never gave unto such a Church no not to the whole community of people Believers as Believers any such power and authority to set apart a Brother or Brothers to admi-ister the Ordinances of Christ as Preaching Baptizing but onely to such as himself chose out of the Church and believers to be Guides and Pastors of the same So of old Ephes 4.11 He gave some Apostles and seme Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers and it followeth for the Church its perfecting and edifying c. not to the Church to ordain and set apart the Authority is Christs to
aswel as his tongue ran too fast in the Pond The Fourth Catechistical Quaere is about the place where the Dipping was done Q. 4. What warrant have you of precept or example of sacred Scripture or succeeding primitive Antiquity for your dipping of your Sisters other your Proselytes in Ponds at your Baptizing This to be done I understand from all present there It was your modesty and humility not to make any Relation or mention of it for that it was your own Pond of your yard and so not to glory of it that the Dipper should make choice of your Pond your common ordinary pond where your Ducks and Geese do wash themselves dayly to honour it with a solemn dipping of two special Sisters therein at their Baptism I speak not this as if I took exception to common and ordinary water used in Baptism yea I acknowledge that God therefore also made choice of the vulgar and common Elementary water to set forth as the purifying and cleansing of souls from sin by the blood of Christ which water that washeth doth well represent so the general offer and benefit of the grace of Christ thereby to all rich and poor even the meanest and vulgars which the commonness and copiousness of water every where to be had doth also intimate And therefore that question about the necessity of water unto baptism so that in decay and defect thereof there can be no Baptism in wine or milk or other liquor needed not either to have been first raised or after so hotly pursued by Hunnius and his party for that water is so common a liquor as every where to be had and at all times as there will be no need nor hath been that ever I read of running out for wine or other liquor to minister the same in Baptism Yea and so long as water may be had wine or other liquor is not to be used out of a luxury of pride or pride of luxury lest they be called Vinarii or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of us winy and windy men too like as some who used water instead of wine in the Lords Supper when this might also be had under a pretence of abstinence but not abstinence of pretence were called by the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Aquarii watry and washy Hereticks as Augustine witnesseth Haeres 64. But yet this I add that if there be such an invincible want and unavoidable scarcity and privation of water for Baptism and wine for the Lords Supper so as to water can be procured but onely wine may be had where baptism cannot with edification and ought not in duty to be delayed so also no wine can be gotten but onely water where the Lords Supper cannot with edification and ought not in duty to be delayed there the one may be supplied by the other in each Sacrament the water by wine in baptism and the wine by water in the Lords Supper And if there be no affectation of novelty in either no contempt of either of the elements no neglect of inquisition or acquisition of the proper element to either I suppose there can be no charge of Heresie or breach of institution in such administrations where the peculiar and proper common elements as I may so call them of wine and water proper to the Lords Supper and commonly in use proper to Baptism and commonly in use cannot be had and procured where such administrations ought to be done and performed If any shall here ask what need all this seeing water is every where to be had for baptism and also wine for the Lords Supper I answer either is not so every where to be had and therefore it is not a needless discourse for there is no use of wine in America where there where brethren that wrote to Calvin hereabouts as Beza in his 25 epistle relateth and there are besides a sort who were are so called Abstemious who cannot endure the very smell or least tast of wine but they will swoon away as we speak and fall down for dead what shall these be done to They must either not receive the Lords Supper at all which they cannot well answer if they ask not for it nor we if we deny it them or else we must give it and they receive it but in one kinde for neither can they away with it if diluted and mixed with water and then we shall do as the Papists would have us and Bellarmine propoundeth as the wise way of the Roman Church to heal up this inconvenience namely the withholding of the Cup from such people lib. 4. de Sacr. cap. 24. And how and if the Priest also should be so Abstemious its readily replied none of these are ever taken with such a disease What remains then but that they must and may take this Sacrament in water or other drink usuall and familiar unto them like as Philip Malancthon tells the Ruthins that they may do well to take the same in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ordinary Mede for the scarcity of wine amongst them lib. de usu integri sacramenti And if there had been no water in that Desart where the Eunuch was converted and earnestly desired Baptism as in many desarts there is none and he had said See here is wine in my chariot in stead of See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized I doubt not but Philip would have baptized him therein and the absence of water would not have hindered it but the providence of God disposed it otherwise and better too there Lastly I should not have touched upon this discourse but that I finde Hunnius and Bellarmine and another Jesuit Jacobus Gualterius coursly handling Calvin Beza Melancthon hereabouts whom I ought to defend in the way of truth as being three great Lights of the Protestant Religion To let the first of these alone Hunnius the third I named Gualterius calleth this a Diabolicall mutation of the Eucharisticall matter lib. 1. Tabulae Chronol The second Bellarmine roundly asketh Quis dedit Philippo authoritatem mutandi sacramentorum materiam somewhat like my Scribe and Pharisee By what authority doest thou these things and who gave thee this authority he speaketh of Philip Melancthon I answer Christ gave it unto him and the other two in the cases mentioned and that upon good reason For a good reason hereof may be given that this being the mind and meaning of our Saviour Christ by setting forth the signes of those things by which our bodies are washed and cherished as the water and wine thereby to present our spiritual ablution and augmentation by his blood we do no way swerve or go from that his mind and meaning if without any wantonness of innovating in the want of the one we substitute another as wine for water in baptism or water for wine in the Lords Supper or any other common and ordinary liquor that may have though not an equal yet alike analogy
of washing and nourishing spiritually By which may be put back what the aforesaid Hunnius objecteth as that we have no word of institution none for substitution and whatsoever is not of faith is sin all which are blunted by our keeping still to the minde and meaning purpose and intention of Christ as to the end and use of the elements in general though the particular elements themselves cannot be procured And whereas he puts a man so baptized under some perplexity of conscience and under the temptation of Satan for I will instance but in that see you are not baptized with water but with some other liquor which was neither sanctified by any Word of God to this use of washing away sin neither hath it any such promise in Scripture adjoined therto he may be taken out of the same tentation by this answer of a good conscience That water was sought out for and none could be gotten and he was in danger and extremity of life and in distresse and want of Christ and his blood to wash his sins away There being some wine in a vessel in the house a Minister affecting no innovation but his good and salvation and the sacramental application of Christs washing blood for his further confirmation and consignation which he so earnestly desired took wine when he could have no water and poured of it upon him using the words I baptize thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost and so he may hope ye doubt not but God hath accepted of him as rightly baptized and interressed in Christ If it be said what analogy in the Lords Supper is there of water to wine seeing this is made up of many bunches of grapes or in baptism of wine to water seeing this hath a vertue to wash and cleanse I reply such particular analogies though they may be profitably thought of where the proper Elements to each Sacrament may be possibly gotten which are not negligently to be omitted yet are they not so precisely to be urged and strictly pressed the one against the other in the times of the scarcity of each Though if so I can say That the water also is made up of many drops of Rain and the wine hath also a washing and cleansing vertue It is sufficient that there is here a general analogy for the testifying of our mutual Communion and spiritual ablution as here is in that we use the same kind of symbols as drink and meat also and washing which are common and usual amongst us in defect of the proper and special and specially in that we hold one and the same faith in conjunction with and sanctification by one Christ and Saviour If indeed though in a case of exigency and scarcity of water any should substitute or use such a matter as hath no power at all in it self to wash or cleanse off the filth of the body so not to signifie the blood of Christ which cleanseth from the guilt of sin it were to be disallowed as that Baptismus Arenarius spoken of by Nicephorus lib. 3. cap. ult how that a young man of the Hebrews being desperately sick and calling for baptism in want of water was superfused with sand and miraculously recovered immediately whom notwithstanding the Bishop of Ascalonia being consulted with thereabouts sent away unto Jordan to be truly baptized the former baptism being indeed as the house in the Gospel built upon the sand and could not stand I know no History of a sandy Supper of the Lord as I may so speak to parallel with that sandy baptism as it was called unless it be that sucacoena that dry Communion and Supper the Popish Priests do give to their people for they also as to the one material part of this sacrament give them not that which doth and should represent the blood of Christ and satisfie their thirst as who give them no wine nothing at all instead of it and is it not all one to give them nothing and to give them that which doth not nor can signifie the blood and satisfie the thirst I am sure nothing doth neither But why do I thus enlarge I return to you and your Pond water And here again I must tell you it was a new business for the ancient manner of the Church in the purest times was to baptize as out of the Church so in Wels and Rivers Floods and Fountains so Walafridus Strabo saith in the 26 Chapter of Ecclesiastical things For thus Christ and all the other multitudes of people were baptized of John in the river Jordan as is expresly said by the Evangelists two of them Matth. 3.13 and 6. Mark 1.5 9. and where it is said John baptized in water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza noteth that Jordan is meant in that Story wheresoever it s mentioned in the singular number as there Matth. 3.11 And whereas John 3.32 John was also baptizing in Aenon neer to Salim because there was much water there either Jordan overflowed hither also and these were other rivers about Aroer and and by the river Arnon mentioned in the Books of Moses oft and meant here by the many waters like as Acts 8.36 they came to a certain water and the Eunuch said See here is water thereby is meant the river Eleutheras lying without the borders of Aegypt where Philip overtook or found the Eunuch and baptized him saith our learned Beza Yea and that Text Acts 16.13 and 15. that Lydia and her houshold were baptized by a Rivers side of the Apostle St. Paul Now tell me who of old as old the Gospel as the Acts of the Apostles was ever baptized or as you speak dipped in a Pond True in the 5 of John there is mention made of a Pond or Pool Stagnum a standing or pent up water whereinto whosoever after the moving or troubling the water by an Angel descending stepped in first was made whole of whatsoever disease he had but this being a special Pond of water extraordinarily assisted of God and miraculously for medicinal cures of bodily diseases maketh nothing for Ponds generally and ordinarily appointed and mysteriously used for baptismal washing of spiritual sins of the soul Where is now your zeal for Scripture examples and patterns that you so much pretend to make shew of How are you still taken tardy in those defaults as you make them in us of humane inventions is this your conformity to the Word is it not rather your difformity from it and its presidents and so indeed this people have committed two evils you have forsaken the clear Fontains and Rivers and Well-springs and have sought out muddy Ponds Pools and Well-springs and have sought out muddy Ponds Pools and standing waters to dip your proselytes in and so leaving the Scripture examples embrace your own inventions we our selves do not therefore baptize no not in Rivers or Fountains nor do we press the same For such examples are not we know left upon the record of
or shoulders and to have laid them down backward in the waters and to have lifted them up again out of the waters being now more heavy in their drenched garments and to have set them upon their feet again surely John the Baptist would soon have been spent that way or had needed many other Baptists under him half a score of such dippers as your Brother is to have assisted him daily and continually to have dispatched such multitudes as daily and continually resorted to him Amongst which great multitudes that came continually unto him from all quarters of Jerusalem and Judea and other Regions about I cannot but think that many sickly and weakly and diseased persons hearing of the great fame of such a Prophet as John the Baptist was who not onely preached the doctrine of Repentance and of the Messias come or shortly to come but baptized into Remission of sin through the same came flocking to him or were led or brought by others as desirous to partake of so great a blessing and mercy before they departed the world like as Mat. 4.24 25. And now can you think or imagine that Joh◠when he baptized such would dip or immerge them under water over head and ears thereby to endanger their lives and in the curing their souls of sin to destroy their bodies of life when as with more safety to them and to as much efficacy he might onely asperse or sprinkle them with water or lay it on with his hand upon some part of their body or head rather If farther you add that it is said in the original that John baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in water which he could not do unless he stood and dipped them in water Sayest thou this thing of thy self or did others tell it thee of him I am sure you could not say it of your self who know nothing of the original but your sin if that and therefore for those others that told you so of him tell them from me that it is right enough translated and rendred to their hand if they can take it with water that Greek particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very often signifieth and is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with or by and that in the Gospel as Mat. 26.52 they that take the sword shall perish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by or with the sword and so Luke 22.49 Lord shall we smite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by or with the sword c. But to draw up if John the Baptist was in the River of Jordan with the people that came to him how was it possible for him to stand there in the cold water all the day and every day dipping and immerging their whole bodies in and under the water and if he was out of the water upon the brink or bank of Jordan how was it possible for him to dip and immerge with his hands the whole bodies of those and so many as came to be baptized For whereas it may be replyed that John came straightway up also out of the water and therefore he stood in the water and baptized there Mark 1.10 if the words of straightway coming up out of the waters refer not to Christ but to John then it s spoken of John that he did so after the baptizing of Christ onely At the baptizing of others as they came and went away John stirred not from them but discoursing many things of Repentance and Faith in the Messias to come both whilst he was baptizing them afterwards and so before they departed out from him he inculcated to them of the Faith of the Fruits of Baptism as Mat. 3.8 9 10 there is the sum of his instructions to the people set down which because as he knew Christ had no need of therefore as soon as he had baptized him he straightway came forth with Christ out of the water and the rather to see the Heavens opening and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove and so further to instruct the people thereupon Again if the people baptized were dipped and immerged with their cloathes on their bodies it was the more heavy too heavy a work to be done by one if with their cloaths off the multitudes coming consisting of men and women some doubtless weak and sickly it was too dangerous a work to be done too immodest a spectacle to be caused or endured by that holy and reverend Prophet of God Hereupon my opinion is clear to my self but with a Salvo to the naked immersions of the whole body by the Ancients cited onely by me to disprove the cloathed dippings of Anabaptists to be the old way yet not so stiff but that it is ready to bend yield to the spirit of the Prophets upon better evidence given that Christ the people baptized of Joh. came indeed to the River Jordan and into it some little way it may be or abode in the brink thereof the people confessing their sins so John the Baptist from his hands taking up water poured it upon their heads or sprinkled and aspersed it upon their heads or faces The which manner of baptizing by aspersing or infusing of water doth yet plainer appear unto me out of the 2 Acts 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls What do you think of these three thousand baptized in one day were they dipped and immerged so many bodies in one day by Peter and the Apostles how could they if they had bin together in or at a River but where they were gathered together in the City and in one place thereof there was neither River nor Fontain nor Wels nor Ponds to be dipped and immerged in in their whole bodies neither is there any fyllable of their removing or going out of the City to Rivers or Ponds and how then could they be so many baptized there but as I said by aspersing water upon them or pouring water upon their heads the very place and the persons the multitude of those who were to be baptized and the paucity of those who did baptize do plainly evidence that the 3000 were not dipped but aspersed onely at that great and first baptizing after Christs Ascension No nor Lydia and her houshold though by a River side abroad when she was converted and baptized was dipped and immerged in her cloaths or out of her cloath◠and so much less those other housholds of grown persons and professors baptized in private by the Apostles as of Cornelius Stephanas c. these or any of these cannot be said or thought to be dipped and merged under water in their whole bodies cloathed or naked without great inconveniences difficulties improbabilities if not impossiblities all which are and may be avoided by the other way of baptizing And thus Sir you may see and feel too unless you will run into darknes in the day time grope
Ancients their dipping and immerging as I have before touched in part and now shall fully handle For 1. I have shewed how the Ancients dipped and immerged in Rivers and Fountains and Wells and Fonts or Baptisteries made so wide and big of purpose but you especially of the later brood of the Separation run out into Ponds to do the same 2. They the Ancients dipped the whole bodies of those who were baptized naked and out of the cloaths such was the Candid Innocency honesty of the old times and for other reasons I have given but you do dip your converts and proselytes covered and in their cloaths for no reasons given by you that I hear of unless it be fear lest Satan tempt you to incontinency as these last ages are very naught indeed and wicked And yet I know some of the Ancients dipped immerged but a part of the body in the water this is not yet touched upon and it will make somewhat for what I have said before of sprinkling and pouring the water upon the head of the baptized Augustine in his 4. Homil saith and so he is cited of Gratian. decret de consec distinc 4. cap. 66. Postquam vos credere promisistis tertiò capita vestra in sacro fonte demersimus and this in the words following he calls Ordo baptismatis it was the very order and manner of baptism after their confession to dip and immerge their heads in the sacred Font. And before him Hierom. Dial. adversus Luciferianos hath these words Multa quae per traditionem in Ecclesia observantur authoritatem sibi scriptae legis usurpaverunt velut in lavachro ter caput mergitare To dip and immerge the head thrice in the laver of baptism he makes it a tradition of the Church and as Authentique as if it were a Law written And before Hierom a little a matter of two years Chrysostom upon these words of John 3. Vnless a man be born of Water and the Spirit saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To those who dip and immerge their head in the water as in a sepulchre the old man is buried and overwhelmed c. Yea before him Eunomius and his followers as ever the Heretiques like Apes will be following some Ancient Customs of the Church who started up in the year 360 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they baptize they wet them down to the breast and no lower the word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dip and immerge strictly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. dew or wet them it may be our English dew may be derived thence and so here by the way may be a proof of the Antiquity of our aspersing or sprinkling or bedewing the baptized for which cause when they the Eunomians baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is labrum quasi lavabrum in a large and ample vessel such as they used in bathes or bucks the party to be baptized standing on the outside or brim thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they bowed down his head unto his breast into the water all this is reported by Theodoret. lib. 4. haeret fabularum Lastly before these it is recorded of B. Laurentius that he baptized one Lucillus and the manner this as the words in the Acts are cum expoliasset eum fudit super caput ejus when he had stript him of his cloathes he poured the water on his head these lived about Cyprians time in the year 260 recorded by Surius tom 4. in the Hist of the Martyrdom of the B. Laurentius But you as you differed from some of the Ancients in dipping and immerging cloathed bodies wheras they did them so naked so do you differ from some other of them in dipping their whole bodies down even to their feet whereas these did but their heads down to their breasts 3. The Ancients dipped those thrice whom they baptized you had but even now the Testimony of Hierom and Augustine a part of whose words I reserved for hither Qui ordo baptismatis duplici mysterii significatione celebratur The order of baptizing with thrice dipping and immerging is famous in the Churches for these two mysterious significations 1. Of three Persons of the Deity 2. Of the three dayes death and resurrection some others add a 3. of the three sorts of sin cleansed by baptism offencâ—s in thought word and deed To which may fitly come in next Teâ—tullian advers Praxeam cap. 26. Nam nec semel sed Ter ad singula nomina in personas singulas mergimur as also Athanasius in dict interp scr qu. 91. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To dip the childe thrice in the Baptistery or Font is to signifie as above Augustine saith I might add to these Chrysostom homil De fide in Deum Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum Ambros lib. de Sac. 2. cap. 7. Gregor Mag. in Epistela ad Leandrum And it appears that as this custome was very general so very Ancient for that Arrius also who lived in 314. some ten years before Athanasius but yet a great while after Tertullian who lived in 190. and therefore best sheweth to be ancient He I say Arrius had got up also this manner of baptizing by thrice immerging who did it for an ill purpose and proof of three natures in the Trinity and not three persons and one God as the Catholiques then spake and therefore according to Christs form baptized in the Name and not in the names for there is but one Name and so but one Divinity which when the Fathers of the Church perceived they saw good reason to change that custome and order of thrice dipping and instead thereof to use but once dipping and thereupon Gregory the Great and the 4 Tolletan Councel are very earnest about it the leaving of that Trine immersion and taking up the simple or once immersion for the avoiding of the scandaling the weak and incouraging the heretiques and lest they should seem to countenance their error when they complyed in their customes But you herein also differ from the Ancients and your practise is to dip but once for so you tell me in your Letter and that with an emphatical reduplication If he had dipt them more then once I would have expressed so in my first Letter but he did dip them but once and so in your saying twice once and again that he dipt them but once you gain-say the greater and higher Antiquity and your self too for once dipping though it was also a good old way yet it was not The good old way as you say that is it is not the best and the oldest way amongst the orthodox Ancients Not but that I acknowledge once dipping to be as efficacious to the ends and fruits of baptism and as mysterious to the signifying of the one Deity of the three holy Persons and the one Death of Christ Jesus besides that in the unity of the same faith a diverse or different custom of the Churches cannot be
charge nor are so sparing of their wine our Divines tell them and they should teach their people that a sup of wine as a morsel of bread may do well enough as well if not better then greater quantities of each at the Sacramental Communication according as anciently they did as Gelasius Lyzicenus in Act is Concil Nicaeni cap. 30. reporteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause we take not much but little of the Bread and Wine for that we know we take them not to or for satiety but sanctity The like whereof is that of Eucherius Serm. 5. de Pascha Eucharistiae sacrae perceptio non in quantitate sed in virtute consistit quòd corpus sacerdote dispensante tantum est in exiguo quantum esse constat in toto The participation of the holy Eucharist stands not in the quantity but efficacy for that the body of Christ when the Priest dispenseth the same holy Eucharist is as much in a little part of the Wine and Bread as in the whole together I have indeed said the more of this as being in my opinion very needful and necessary to strengthen and arm our selves and our people against the dangerous tentations of the Devil wherewith he and his instruments which are many in these dayes do mainly assault the mindes and scruple the consciences and pervert the faith of the weaker amongst us as indeed they have done to your self Sir by your leave He as he goeth about the earth roaring and they hissing as they creep into houses that their and your sprinkled baptism was no true baptism as being but a little water poured upon your face but onely one part outwardly and telling you if you will be baptized indeed and to purpose you must be dipped and immerged in your whole body and in every part outwardly that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless against the coming of the Lord 1. Thess 5.23 Thus they together have cast a snare upon you they have snared you into their nets and caught you with some other silly Fry as the Spider hath the simple Fly and have dipped and doused you in your cloathes under water you being in their nets the devil in a corner laughing snearing and dancing the while over you even as the Spider doth winde up and truss up the Fly being come into its Cobweb and then skips leaps and runs about it and which I may mark sucks and seeds upon the poor Fly Well Sir if you be willing to come to the acknowledging of the truth as I am zealous to bring you to it and to recover your self out of the snare of the divel who are taken captive by him and others at his will and theirs 2 Tim. 2.25 26 read consider believe the Truth I have set before you but read with impartiality without prejudicateness Consider with indifferency without precipitancy and believe the Truth with submission without resistance and with many other words have I testified the Truth in the answer of your Brother before as well as in this answer to you and have exhorted and do exhort saying Save your selves especially save your self from this untoward and froward Generation Acts 2.40 And if this be not enough that I have said read on still for I have somewhat more to say unto you as willing that you should not perish but come to the knowledge of the Truth and the acknowledgement of your Errors for so also there is somewhat more that you say to me in your Letter thus you write further Sir I wonder how you dare to say that you do imbrace the Truth as it is laid out by Jesus did Jesus ever lay down that a man should learn the Latine and Greek Tongue and so to a Vniversity to read Philosophy and commence Batchelor and Master of Arts and Batchelor and Doctor of Divinity and so come to a Parish there to take a Living from them to the value of 100 l. per annum more or less they nilling willing and there stile himself the Minister of Jesus Christ Did ever Christ lay down that you should take a little water and sprinkle it on the face of an Infant and say you dip them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost did ever Christ lay down that his Ministers should be his peoples Masters as Lords over Gods Heritage Did Christ lay down that you should take a Parish a Church and to them cast the holy things of the body and blood of Christ as unto a company many of them if not the most of them no better then dogs I my self having been one who was not so good as a god till the grace of God appeared plucking me out of my wicked wayes to the knowledge of the Truth which you fear I have not owned But the day will discover and God will judge between you and us Here is stuff indeed enough to make an onely English-man to speak Greek and Latine of purpose to declare the vanity of such words against Languages like as the Sedentary Philosopher did presently arise and walk about to shew the folly of him who before him denied motion Quis expedivit Psittaco suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Picasque docuit nostra verba conari I wonder Sir where you learned to speak these our words to spie out our Liberties yea to Pie and Parrat out our Tongues Degrees and Learning of the University your self never living there and now conversing with the Antipodes to the same Auditum spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici Truly friends and Readers so I would join you for that I know all Readers of me will not be friends with me I had not written out this passage but that I would at the closure of my answer present you with this spectacle of ridiculous stuff to move some mirth in you for there is nothing of Oracle or solid matter in it to take up any of your serious eyes ears or thoughts These indeed having been carried now a long time even unto wearisomness and tediousness I fear through the washes deeps and dippings of Ponds and Rivers it is time to bring you now to a fire to warm and dry you and in good time be it spoken as done Here 's an ignis fatuus a smoaking fire-brand a sparkling squib a blazing Comet a crackling thorn-bush enough to smutch a whole University but fear nothing deest ignis there 's no fire under the words nothing but a little flash and fume and new light a noise vox preterea nihil if you cannot warm your hands at it yet clap your hands at it and shout and laugh at it till you have warmed and refreshed your self sufficiently whilst I go on with my answer to such words for there is nothing of matter in them and shew the vanity of vanity in them also and all to be but vanity here Sir How dare you say you embrace the truth laid out by Jesus did ever Jesus lay down
by the Beard and mouth and slew him for all his roaring quirks and howling quaeries and so have delivered you if you will be delivered from the spirit of bondage and love not your chain and fetters of their Errors more then the Freedom and Liberty of Truth for if the Truth or the Son of God who is the Truth have made or shall make you free then you are free indeed Now then and lastly Sir shew your self a true Israelite come and hear the Truth and know your friends the soul-truth which is the sole-truth and your soul-friends which are your sole-friends and come away from those Task-masters that lay heavy burthens upon your bodies and dip them under water over head and ears for their own gain more then yours and for their advantage to an evil cause Forego your bondage and darkness of Aegypt which goeth under the name of New-light and Liberty forget your garlick Onions and Flesh-pots which they call The Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit run from their hot furnaces and rash fires which they tearm Zeal keep away from their Ponds cold waters which they call Dipping Baptizing depart from the Tents of those that practice Rebellion under pretence of Religion Holines shake off your fellowship with their unfruitful works and words and as you have heard unprofitable Preachings and Teachings presumed upon under the Title of a gifted Brother-hood and Fraternity leave the Citizens or Farmers field and the Husks there and arise and go to your Fathers house the Church of God where is bread enough and to spare for the servants and much more for the Sons Get loose from those Bushes and Brambles where you are are entangled before you lose all the wool off your back and be fleeced by them Come now then and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimsom they shall be as wool If you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land but if you refuse and rebel you shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Esay 1.18 19 20. Yea come and return as to the Lord so to your Pastor Here 's the right hand of fellowship and true Brotherhood I offer unto you to set you free and to help you out and to defend you against them yea and now that I have been long going after you as a lost sheep and one of my hundred fold and have found your at last I will lay you on my shoulders to bring you home again and wil undergo any labour and pains for your Reversion Reduction bearing also with your former defects or defaults with patience and meekness as the Apostle bids we should bear one anothers burthens Gal. 6.2 yea and I shall call together our friends and neighbours to a publick rejoycing and thanksgiving bearing also the Burthen of the Song or Psalm my self and saying Rejoyce with me for I have found my sheep which was lost yea and the blessed Angels above will be of the Quire and there will be joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth as your self yea and Christ Jesus the Great shepheard of all the sheep and of all souls will embrace your returning delight in you Who his own self bare your sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 For you was as a sheep going astray but if you shall return unto this Shepherd and Bishop of your soul When the chief Shepherd shall appear you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away whereby you will be glorified in heaven and in the mean time he will put a Crown of Righteousness upon your head that falleth not off whereby you shall be both justified and sanctified also Nay your self will thus become a Crown of rejoycing to us all my self especially For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoycing Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming Yea you are our glory and joy 1 Thes 2.19 Therefore my brother dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown Phil. 4.1 return unto the Lord the Lords Church and Flock the Lords Ministery and Pasturage the Lords Covenant with Parents and their Children the Lords Baptism and Sheep-mark and so stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work of righteousness and word of truth working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Heb. 13.20 21. If yet notwithstanding all this friendly invitation and fair warning you will not hear and hearken to come in but will go still astray My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eyes shall run down with tears because the Lords flock and your self for one amongst them is carried away captive Jer. 13.17 Wherefore I take you to record this day in which you have read over what I have written to you that I am pure from the blood of you all you and all for what I say unto you I say unto all for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God Acts 20.26 27. in these particulars that he hath out of his Word revealed unto me And so I have delivered my soul as to you and them by foretelling and forewarning you of the truth as a Watchman set over you Ezek. 33.9 if you will not deliver your soul by obeying the truth and submit thereunto when it is held out to you by him who hath the rule or guide and oversight of you and watcheth for your soul and must give account and would do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Heb. 13.17 Then you will die in your iniquity and obstinacy your blood will be required at your own hands and will lie upon your own head who can help it unless God forbid it the which also God forbid I pray God Yea once more also I call heaven and earth to record this day against you Deut. 30.19 or for you that I have set before you life and death Blessing and Cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live and that thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that his Covenant that he made to be thy God and the God of thy seed and that thou mayest obey his voyce and that command for the baptizing of the Parent and his Seed That thou mayest cleave unto him and not forsake your God in Covenant with you sealed in your Infancy by renouncing your Baptism then and now running after other unprofitable Dippings for he is thy life and the length of thy dayes that thou mayest dwell here on earth a while and also be in Heaven for ever And now to him that is of power to establish you according to the Gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ and the Revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandement of the Everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith To God onely wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen Rom. 16 25 26 27. To which onely wise God and his Providence committing my self and what I have written here as likewise to the same onely good God and his blessing commending you and what you shall read here even to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up who are fallen from that of Baptism and to establish all that stand therein I take my leave and give you farewel resting your affectionate and inseparate Pastor and Friend Jeffry Watts FINIS ERRATA EPistle to the Reader page 2. l. 8. read Printer p. 11. l. 22. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 19. l. 16. r. word p. 24. l. 27. r. even p. 25. l 13. r. Hypocriticab p. 27. l. 18. r own p 32. Margin blot out too p. 43. l. 6. r. of p. 44 l. 13. blot out that p. 45 l. 4. r. châ— p. 56. l. 17. r. then p. 63 l. 18. r rusticity p 65. l. 14. r. intentional p. 79. l. 7. blot out save p. 82. l. 12. bâ—ot out and not observe the 13. year seeing Christ was baptized at 30. years old p 94. l. last r. your p. 99. l. 16. r. account p. 101. l. 26. for our r. the p. 102 l. 2. r. off-spring p. 104. l. 12. r. useful p. 105. l. 37. r. ordinary p. 122. l. 38. r. Presbyter p 123. l. 8 blot out to l. 13. r. Profession p. 128. l. 33. r. must not p. 155 l. 30. blot out And do hope that by reason c. l. 39. r. we bless p. 169. l. 8. r moderate p. 171. l. 12. r. injuring p. 185 l. 13. add gather l. 34 add it p. 198. l. 2. r. that p. 226. l. 18. blot out to our most agreeable p 240. l 38 for as râ—a p. 250. l. 3. blot out so p. 252. Running title for honour r. beware p. 256. l. 31. r. devising p. 273. l. 28. r. brethren p. 274 l. 31. r. comb p. 276. l. 37. r. so p. 278. l. 2. r. have made p. 290. l. 1. add you Of Baptism Page 24 line 31 read with p 56 running Title r not practical p 61 l 3 r or p 72 l 33 r your p 73 l 24 for Chap r Verse p 74 l 3 blot out and p 87 l 30 add iâ— p 100 l 28 blot out in p 103 l 21 r they p 117 l 19 r alwayes p 131 l 16 r she l 17 blot out of p 140 l 16 r Apostle p 142 l 38 r the p. 145 l 35 r procreating p 151 l 37 r these p. 157 l 11 r friend p 163 l 35 for can r you p 164 l 7 add was p 198 l 32 r Apostles l 34 for yet are r were l 35 for to r doe The Dipper Sprinkled Page 13 line 6 read fruit p 19 l 39 r naughtiness p 27 l 26 r sicca p 28 l 18 add as p 30 l 2 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 37 l 8 blot out die p 48 l 14 r. four p 81 l 18 r potissimum
Reason If Baptism be a means and Remedy to free Christian-Infants from originall sin as to guilt and punishment and the dominion thereof in them that are Eâ—ect and Beleevers Then such are and ought to be baptised The Church or Minister of it knowing nothing of this and that particular Infant but he or she may be such This Warant is reasoned out of Gods Word or this Reason is Warranted out of Gods Word Romans 6.3.4 5 6. verses We as many of us as were baptised into Christ were baptised into his death therefore we are buried with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead so we should walk in newnesse of life c. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin I must here add a little explication lest there may be a misconstruction construction of some Popery The Popery in this poynt is this That baptism taketh away original sin that it ceaseth after baptism to be a sin properly and is nothing but a defect or weaknesse which maketh the heart fit and ready to conceive sin like Tinder which is not Fire but is apt to conceive Fire This I abandon as Popery and an Error But this I aver as Truth and Protestancy 1. That after baptism in the Elect Infants original sin is taken away as to the punishment of it for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 2. As to the guiltinesse of the person there being nothing to bind them to punishment if no such condemnation 3. As to the dominion of it it shall not reign in their mortal bodies nor they serve it 4. As to the Imputation of it it shall not be imputed to them but be pardoned and in that respect be as if not But for all this original sin or concupisence remaines in the Elect Infants even after baptism and ever after and is still sin and properly sin some limbs and portions of the old man and the body of sin remain even where he is said to be crucified and destroyed in the manner above and there are and will be defilements in them that are washed I must enlarge no farether here However this may be a comfort to Beleevers that in Christ the promised seed who should and did break the Serpents head which in some good sense I may call original sin there is pardon of this sin to their natural seed and therefore Christ was also born not in the ordinary way as others of Mankind but of a Virgin as conceived by the Holy Ghost that so being free himself from original all sin He might procure the pardon of the same and be a plea against it Yea though Infants in present have no actual sins yet their baptism extends its vertue to the taking away also of the guilt punishment dominion and imputation of sins to come so the party baptised stand to the order terms of Baptism which is to turn to God beleeve actually in Christ and continually renew repentance as the place above mentioned imports Romans 6.4 and thus baptism saveth 1 Peter 3.21 So doth baptism seal the Pardon as of original so also of actual sin Acts 22.16 Ananias said to Paul Arise and be baptised and wash away thy sins calling upon the name of the Lord. Oh but we commit sins dayly after baptism that after justification will the Lord continue to pardon such sins yes if we continue to repent of and purge away sich sins So 1 John 1.7 8. If we confesse our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us how faithful and just to forgive sin it implyeth that he hath somewhere bound himself by promise to do it and where and when but in baptism and to whom but the party baptised so far as sin is repented of when the Conscience makes any question whether God will continue to pardon sin the washing of Baptism doth seal the assurance thereof the person baptised may say I am assured of it I have it sealed to me so many years ago at the time of my Baptism It is also a popish device who tell you that Baptism onely serveth for Remission of sins done before and therefore for sins does after they must have a Sacrament of Penance distinct from Baptism appointed for a remedy For the Sacramental force of Baptism doth extend it self to the whole life that is to be a Seal unto them of Remission of sin in the blood of Christ And the confession of sin is but a more effectual application of the force of Baptism like as the people who were baptised of John confessed also their sins And therefore there needs no Sacrament of Repentance or Penance to be set up for this purpose after Baptism to be a second Table for Refuge after sins actually committed like as they say making Baptism but the first Table for Refuge after original sin contracted For Baptism it self is the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins Mark 1.4 Christs baptism being not different from Johns Baptism as is shewed as which teacheth and ingageth us to dye unto sin and rise unto newnesse of lie Romans 6.4 Which is nothing but Repentance which is called Repentance from dead workes and so a rising from them Heb. 6.1 It would therefore much promote the good cause of Infant-Baptism if the Doctrin of original sin especially also actual were pressed and urged upon People and Parents especially a little more and they heard oftener how all Men and Women and Children born in the ordinary way sin Adams fall are born in the guilt of original sin and have a sinfull and polluted being whosoever have any being and may and must every one confesse with David I was born in sin and in iniquity hath my Mother conceived me it is plain that he confesseth not his Parents but his own sin this being the scope of the whole Psalm so with Job Who can bring that which is clean not of that which is unclean that which is born of the flesh is felesh flesh and blood cannot inherit eternal life and that by Nature we are the Children of wrath and all Infants as that in Ezekiel 16. polluted in their bloods their Fathers are Adamites their Mothers are Hevites c. This if preached and pressed would shew to Parents what great need there is of a New-Birth for their Children and so would lead and drive them to procure for them the outward washing in Baptism as a Seal of the inward washing away of that natural pollution of sin by the Spirit Thus our Saviour Christ inforces it unto Nicodemus John 3.5 and that not so immediately in reference to actual sin as original or Birth sin the natural pollution in which Infants are born and I can see no good reason to the contrary but that the outward Elementary Baptism of Water is here intended as
have the sign of water and discern the sign in the very act with the eye of his flesh and yet be a grosse heritique and a vile hypocrite yea a very reprobate So an infant may be and but once Baptized and that in its infancy and want your discerning of the sign and yet when he comes to years of discretion prove a holy pious honest orthodox and worthy Christian But now that according to our agreement you and others have spoken first all you had and have to say for your legitimal holiness to be here meant against the federal holiness of children of Christians Baptized which all is but very little very nothing it is my turn now to say something for our federal holiness to be 〈◊〉 a meant and against your legitimal holiness which 〈…〉 also little yet something onely a small addition to whom have already enlarged upon in my answer to you hereabouts to be as a conclusion to the premisses and a performance of my promises I say then that the Apostle speaking of the children of Parents of whom one is a believer the other an infidel and saying that they are not unclean but holy doth not mean holiness by legitimation as thus your children are not bastards but lawfully begotten and born as you and other of the separation do expound it insisting in the steps of the Jesuites and in the way of Rome from which and whom notwithstanding you pretend a seperation as much yea have taken a solemn Covenant for the extirpating of Popery It is true such a holiness is here spoken of and meant as is opposite to uncleanness but to what uncleanness the uncleanness of Idolatry and Paganism for so these are called in Scripture phrase uncleanness and even spiritual Adultery and Fornication and all Idolaters and Heathens are called harlots and said to go a Whoring after other gods but you and your genuine Expositors oppose that holiness to anothers uncleanness onely which is bodily adultery fornication and uncleanness and so give us as the genuine sense of those words else were your children unclean that is bastards but now they are holy lawfully born and no bastards a genuine sense indeed as you call and according to the lust of the flâ—sh more than the minde of the Spirit as you boasted in the beginning of your exposition of this verse If this had been all the matter the Corinthian couples know this particular better than the Apostle himself who knew more than they all of this matter of holiness they needed not to have sent to him for his opinion and resolution to know whether their children were bastards or no who knew themselves being of the civil Heathens to be lawfully married according to the Laws and Customs of their Nations and so their issue to be legitimate they were so fully assured of that and this that they could have made evidence and given satisfaction to the Apostle rather then needed to have the one or take the other from him And whereas it s held of you and all of us that the Apostle here answereth a scruple or case of Conscience which the believing party joyned with an unbelieving yoke-fellow propounded unto him as before about their conjugal society so about their natal or natural issue whether it was to be counted to the people of God after the believing party or as alien from God after the unbelieving party he answereth it clearly and pertinently their children were not unclean but holy by which if he had meant they are not bastards but legitimates the incomparably learned and Logical Disputer St. Paul had not answered to the business and question propounded for they made no question of the legitimacy of their issue but of the holiness of their state and the exquisitely prudent and Theological discerner had very meanly resolved their doubt and but very cloudily elucidated their scruple and afforded no peace as all to their Consciences in this but rather involved them in farther troubles For the whole City of Corinth and all the Heathen Regions and conjugal couples emongst them would have been disturbed and disquieted in their Consciences at this case of Conscience so resolved by the Apostle and would have been filled with confusion ready to have laid hands on Paul where they could meet him and to say of him This is he that hath turned the world up-side-down and is come hither also to be a setter forth of strange resolves and doctrines yea to take and apprehnd him and bring him unto Areopagus the greatest Court of the Heathens for calling them all Whores and Adulterers and their children bastards and illegitimates by this his resolution if it were according to your interpretation Look to it Sir for you are in danger to be called in question for this daies uproare and this trouble of Conscience amongst the poor Heathen there being no cause whereby you can give an account of this con-course and rugged interpretation For observe it I pray if the Apostle saying the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband and the unbelieving husband be sanctified by the wise else were their children unclean did mean else were they bastards according to your interpretation doth not he or rather do not you make him call all those children bastards whose both Parents were or are unbelievers it is palpable you do for if the unbelieving party were not sanctified by the believing then were they unclean that is bastards you say and in so saying you say thus much That all children of those Parents whereof the one is not sanctified by the other are unclean that is bastards for the former proposition being conditional and hypothetical were not true if this proposition which is pofitive and categorical were not true or more plainly I will resolve the truth of the Apostles sequel the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife c. else were your children unclean into this proposition from which it floweth namely All the children of an unbeliever are unclean unless the unbelieving husband be sanctified by a believing wife or the unbelieving wife be sanctified by a believing husband for generation and coition as I have said Now give you the sense and bring in your interpretation of it All the children of an unbeliever are bastards unlesse the unbelieving husband be sanctified by a believing wife or an unbelieving wife be sanctified by a believing husband for generation and coition and then tell me whether you do not make the Apostle say or rather say your self that all the children of the Heathen and unbelieving Parents of which the one is not sanctified by the other believing are bastards notwithstanding born of both Parents in lawful wedlock according to the Laws and Customs of Nations If the Apostle Paul had preached this doctrine that you by your Exposition would seem to make him he would have been in many more perils and hazards whilest he passed through the Pagan and Heathen Nations than he was and would not have converted