Selected quad for the lemma: water_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A50529
|
Diatribae discovrses on on divers texts of Scriptvre / delivered upon severall occasions by Joseph Mede ...; Selections. 1642
|
Mede, Joseph, 1586-1638.
|
1642
(1642)
|
Wing M1597; ESTC R233095
|
303,564
|
538
|
for whom even themselves being Judges it would be an uncomely thing to wear a vail that is a womans habit so by the like reason was it as uncomely for a woman to be without a vail that is in the guise and dresse of a man And howsoever the Devils of the Gentiles sometimes took pleasure in uncomelinesse and absurd garbs and gestures yet the God whom they worshipped with his holy Angels who were present at their devotions loved a comely accommodation agreeable to Nature and Custome in such as worshipped him For this cause therefore saith he ought a woman to have a covering on her head because of the Angels Lastly he concludes it from the example and custome both of the Iewish and Christian Churches neither of which had any such use for their women to be unvailed in their sacred assemblies If any man saith he be contentious that is will not be satisfied with these reasons let him know that we that is we of the Circumcision have no such custome nor the Church of God For so with S. Ambrose Anselme and some of the ancients I take the meaning of the Apostle to be in those words Thus you have heard briefly what was the fault of these Corinthian Dames which the Apostle here taxeth From which we our selves may learn thus much That God requires a decent and comely accommodation in his House in the act of his worship and service For if in their habit and dresse surely much more in their gestures and deportment he loves nothing that is unseemly in the one or in the other TITUS 3. 5. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost THese words as it is easie to conceive upon the first hearing are spoken of Baptisme of which I intend not by this choyce to make any full or accurate tractation but onely to acquaint you as I am wont with my thoughts concerning two particulars therein One from what propriety analogy or use of water the washing therewith was instituted for a sign of new birth according as it is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the washing of regeneration The other what is the counter-type or thing which the water figureth in this Sacrament I will begin with the last first because the knowledge thereof must be supposed for the explication and more distinct understanding of the other In every Sacrament as ye well know there is the outward Symbole or sign res terrena and the signatum figured and represented thereby res coelestis In this of Baptism the sign or res terrena is washing with water The question is what is the Signatum the invisible and celestiall thing which answers thereunto In our Catecheticall explications of this mystery it is wont to be affirmed to be the blood of Christ That as Water washeth away the filth of the body so the blood of Christ cleanseth us from the guilt and pollution of sin And there is no question but the blood of Christ is the fountain of all the grace and good communicated unto us either in this or any other Sacrament or mystery of the Gospel But that this should be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the counterpart or thing figured by the water in Baptism I beleeve not because the Scripture which must be our guide and direction in this case makes it another thing to wit the Spirit or Holy Ghost this to be that whereby the soul is cleansed and renewed within as the body with water is without so saith our Saviour to Nicodemus Ioh. 3. Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And the Apostle in the words I have read parallels the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost as type and countertype God saith he hath saved us that is brought us into the state of salvation by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost where none I trow will deny that he speaks of Baptism The same was represented by that vision at our Saviours Baptism of the holy Ghosts descending upon him as he came out of the water in the similitude of a Dove For I suppose that in that Baptism of his the mystery of all our Baptisms was visibly acted and that God sayes to every one truly baptized as he said to him in a proportionable sense Thou art my Son in whom I am well pleased And how pliable the analogy of water is to typifie the Spirit well appears by the figuring of the Spirit thereby in other places of Scripture As in that of Isay I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and slouds upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon by seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring where the latter expounds the former Also by the discourse of our Saviour with the Samaritan woman Iohn 4. 14. Whosoever saith he drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life By that also Ioh. 7. 37. where on the last day of the great feast Iesus stood and said If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that beleeveth on me as the Scripture saith that is as the Scripture is wont to expresse it for otherwise there is no such place of Scripture to be found in all the Bible out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this saith the Euangelist he spake of the Spirit which they that beleeve on him should receive Nor did the Fathers or ancient Church as far as I can finde suppose any other correlative to the element in Baptism but this of this they speak often of the blood of Christ they are altogether silent in their explicatioÌ„s of this mystery many are the allusioÌ„s they seek out for the illustration thereof and some perhaps forced but this of the water signifying or having any relation to the blood of Christ never comes amongst them which were impossible if they â—ad not supposed some other thing figured by the water then it which barred them from falling on that conceit The like silence is to be observed in our Liturgy where the Holy Ghost is more then once paralled with the water in Baptism washing and regeneration attributed thereunto but no such notion of the blood of Christ. And that the opinion thereof is novell may be gathered because some Lutheran Divines make it peculiar and proper to the followers of Calvin Whatsoever it be it hath no foundation in Scripture and we must not of our own heads assigne significations to Sacramentall types without some warrant thence For whereas some conceive those two expressions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sprinkling of the blood of Christ and of our being washed from our sins in or by his blood do intimate some such matter they are surely mistaken for those expressions have reference not to the
water of Baptism in the New Testament but to the rite and manner of sacrificing in the Old where the Altar was wont to be sprinkled with the blood of the Sacrifices which were offered and that which was unclean purified with the same blood whence is that elegant discourse of Saint Paul Heb. 9. comparing the sacrifices of the Law with that of Christ upon the Crosse as much the better And that whereas in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almost all things were purified with blood so much more the blood of Christ who offered himself without spot to God cleanseth our consciences from dead works But that this washing that is cleansing by the blood of Christ should have reference to Baptism where is that to be found I suppose they will not alledge the water and blood which came out of our Saviours side when they pierced him For that is taken to signifie the two Sacraments ordained by Christ that of blood the Eucharist of water Baptism not both to be referred to Baptism I add because perhaps some mens fancies are corrupted therwith that there was no such thing as sprinkling or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Baptism in the Apostles times nor many ages after them and that therefore it is no way probable that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter should have any reference to the Laver of Baptism Let this then be our conclusion That the blood of Christ concurres in the mystery of Baptism by way of efficacy and merit but not as the thing there figured which the Scripture tels us not to be the blood of Christ but the Spirit And so I come to my other Quaere From what property or use of water the washing therewith is a Sacrament of our new birth for so it is here called the washing of regeneration and our Saviour sayes to Nicodemus Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God For in every Sacrament there is some analogy between what is outwardly done and what is thereby signified therefore in this But what should it be It is a thing of some moment and yet in the tractates of this mystery but little or seldom enquired after and therefore deserves the more consideration I answer this analogy between the washing with water and regeneration lies in that custome of washing infants from the pollutions of the womb when they are first born for this is the first office done unto them when they come out of the womb if they purpose to nourish and bring them up As therefore in our naturall birth the body is washt with water from the pollutions wherewith it comes besmeared out of the matrix so in our second birth from above the soul is purified by the Spirit from the guilt and pollution of sin to begin a new life to God-ward The analogy you see is apt and proper if that be true of the custome whereof there is no cause to make question For the use at present any man I think knows how to inform himself For that of elder times I can produce two pregnant and notable testimonies one of the Jews and people of God another of the Gentiles The first you shall finde Ezek. 16. where God describes the poor and forlorn condition of Jerusalem when he first took her to himself under the parable of an exposed Infant As for thy nativity saith he in the day thou wast born thy navell was not cut neither was thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all None eye pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee to have compassion on thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born Here you may learn what was wont to be done unto infants at their nativity by that which was not done to Israel till God himself took pity on her cutting off the navell string washing salting swadling upon this place S. Hierome takes notice but scarce any body else that I can yet finde that our Saviour where speaking of Baptism he says Except a man be born of water the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God alludes to the custom here mentioned of washing Infants at their nativity The other testimony and that most pertinent to the application we make I finde in a story related by Plutarch in his Quaestiones Romanae not far from the beginning in this manner Among the Greeks if one that were living were reported to be dead and funerall obsequies performed for him if afterward he returned alive he was of all men abominated as a pro phane and unlucky person no man would come into his company and which was the highest degree of calamity they excluded him from their Temples and the Sacrifices of their gods It chanced that one Aristinus being faln into such a disaster not knowing which way to expiate himself therefrom sent to the Oracle at Delphos to Apollo beseeching him to shew him the means whereby he might be freed and discharged thereof Pythia gave him this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arastinus rightly apprehending what the Oracle meant offered himself to women as one newly brought forth to be washed again with water from which example it grew a custome among the Greeks when the like misfortune befell any man after this manner to expiate them they called them Hysteropâ—tmi or Postliminiâ—nati How well doth this befit the mystery of Baptism where those who were dead to God through sin are like Hysteropotmi regenerate and born again by water and the Holy Ghost These two passages discover sufficiently the analogy of the washing with water in Baptism to regeneration or new birth according as the Text I have chosen for the scope of my discourse expresseth it namely that washing with water is a signe of spirituall infancy for as much as infants are wont to be washed when they come first into the world Hence the Jews before Iohn the Baptist came amongst them were wont by this rite to initiate such as they made Proselytes to wit as becomming infants again and entring into a new life and being which before they had not That which here I have affirmed will be yet more evident if we consider those other rites anciently added and used in the celebration of this mystery which had the self-same end we speak of namely to signifie spirituall Infancy I will name them and so conclude As that of giving the new baptized milk and honey ad infantandum as Tertullian speaks ad infantie significationem so S. Hierome because the like was used to infants new born according to that in the seventh of Isay of Immanuels infancy A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse evill and chuse good Secondly that of salt as is implied in that