A Golden Chain, Chapter 33
CHAP. 33. Of Baptisme.
THere are two Sacraments. 1. Cor. 10. 1. I would not hauehave you ignorant, that all our fathers were vnderunder the cloude, and all passed through the sea. 2. And were all baptized vntounto Moses in the cloude, and in the sea. 3. And did all eate the same spirituall meate, 4. And dranke all the same spirituall drinke: (for they dranke of the spirituall rocke that followed them, which rocke was Christ.) Tertull. 4. booke, contra Marcion. August. de Symbol ad Catechum. 4. booke 6. chap.
The first Sacrament is that, whereby Christians are initiated, and admitted into the Church of God: and this is Baptisme.
The second Sacrament, whereby the Church is preserued and nourished, is the Lords Supper.
Baptisme is a Sacrament, by which such as are within the couenant are washed with water, in the name of the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost: that beeing thus engraffed into Christ, they may hauehave perpetuall fellowship with him. Matth. 28.19. Goe; teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost. Matth. 16.16. He that beleeueth and is baptized, shall be saued: he that beleeueth not, shall be condemned. 1. Cor. 1.13. Is Christ deuided? was Paul crucified for you? …i…her were ye baptized into the name of Paul. 14. I thanke God, I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius. 15. Least any should say, I had baptized into mine owne name.
Within the couenant are all the seede of Abraham, or the seede of the faithfull. These are either of riper yeares, or infants.
Those of riper yeares, are all such as adioyning themselues to the visible Church, doe both testifie their repentance of their sinnes, and hold the foundations of religion, taught in the same Church. Matth. 3. 6. And they were baptized of him in Iorden, confessing their sinnes. Act. 8.36. As they went they came to a water: then the Eunuch saide, See, here is water, what hindreth me to be baptized? 37. Then Philip said, If thou beleeue with all thine heart, thou maist: he said, I beleeue that Iesus Christ is the Sonne of God. 38. And they went downe into the water, both Philip and the Eunuch; and he baptized him. Exod. 12.48. If a stranger dwell with thee, and will observe the Passeouer of the Lord, let him circumcise all the males that belong vntounto him, and then let him come and obserue it, and then he shall be as one that is borne in the land: for none vncircumcised person shall eate thereof.
Infants within the Couenant, are such, as hauehave one at the least of their parents faithfull. 1. Cor. 7.14. The vnbeleeuing husband is sanctified by the wife, and the vnbeleeuing wife is sanctified by the husband, else were your children vncleane, but now they are holy. Rom. 11.16. If the first fruits be holy, so is the whole lumpe: and if the roote be holy, so are the branches. Gen. 17.7. I will establish my couenant betweene me and thee, and thy seede after thee, in their generations, for an euerlasting couenant, to be God vntounto thee, and thy seede after thee. 13. He that is borne in thine house, and he that is bought with money, must needes be circumcised: so my couenant shall be in your flesh for an euerlasting couenant. Act. 16.31. They said, Beleeue in the Lord Iesus, and thou shalt be saued, and thy whole houshold.
Quest. How are the children of faithfull parents in the couenant?
Answer. Holy parents are two waies to be considered. First, as they were the sonnes of the first Adam, and so are as yet partly carnall. In this estate they in like sort doe beget their sonnes the children of wrath. For the father begetteth a sonne, not as he is a good man, but simply as a man; and therefore beeing impure, he must needes beget that which is impure. Secondly, we must consider the parents as they are the sonnes of God, engraffed into the second Adam. In this estate though they cannot deriue faith vntounto their posteritie, (for the sonnes of God are not made such by naturall generation, but by the adoption of God the Father) yet may they beleeue both for themselues and others, according to the tenour of the couenant of grace: as Adam did sinne both for himselfe and others: and as parents in bargaines doe couenant both for themselues and their heires after them. Hence it is that Paul saith, that the parents are like vntounto the first fruits which doe sanctifie the whole lumpe. So then, the faith of the parents maketh those their sonnes to be accounted in the couenant, which by reason of their age doe not yet actually beleeue.
To be baptized into the name of the Father, &c. after the receit of the outward signe of washing, is to be made one of Gods familie, which is his church, and to be partaker of the priuiledges thereof. Gen. 48.16. The Angel which hath duplicate page duplicate page deliuered me from all euill, blesse the children, and let my name be named vponupon them, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Izhak, that they may grow as fish into multitude, in the middest of the earth. Esai 4. 1. In that day shall seuen women take hold of one man, saying, We will eate our owne bread, and we will weare our owne garments: onelyonly let vsus be called by thy name, and take away our reproch.
By this it is manifest, that in this washing of Baptisme, there is sealed and propounded a marueilous solemne couenant and contract: first, of God with the baptized, in that God the Father vouchsafed to receiue him into fauour, the Sonne to redeeme him, the holy Ghost to purifie and regenerate him: secondly, of the baptized with God, who promiseth to acknowledge, inuocate, and worship none other God, but the true Iehouah, which is the Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost.
The externall and visible matter of baptisme, is water: for the minister may not baptize with any other liquor, but onelyonly with naturall water.
This was the iudgement of the Primitiue Church. For when as a certaine minister, for want of water, tooke sande, and baptized one with that: the partie thus besanded, was further baptized, the former beeing esteemed of none effect. Niceph. histor. 3. booke. 33. chapter.
The externall forme of baptisme, is the ministers washing of the baptized, according to the prescript rule of Gods word. Rom. 10. 4.
The ancient custome of baptizing, was to dippe, and, as it were, to diue, all the bodie of the baptized in the water, as may appeare in Paul, Rom. 6. and the Councels of Laodicea, and Neocaesarea: but now especially in cold countries, the Church vseth onelyonly to sprinkle the baptized, by reason of childrens weaknesse: for very few of ripe yeares are now a daies baptized. We need not much to marueile at this alteration, seeing charitie and necessitie may dispense with ceremonies, and mitigate in equitie the sharpnes of them.
The Sacramentall vnion of the parts of baptisme, is on this sort.
The element of water whereby the vncleannesse of the body is purified by a most conuenient proportion shadoweth out the blood of Christ, and by the figure Synecdoche, taking the part for the whole, whole Christ. 1. Ioh. 1.7. And the blood of Iesus Christ clenseth vsus from all sinne.
The action of the Minister, is his washing of the partie baptized with the element of water. This sealeth and confirmeth a double action of God. I. The engrafting or incorporating of the baptized into Christ. Gal. 3.27. As many as are baptized into Christ, hauehave put on Christ. 1. Cor. 12.13. By one spirit we are all baptized into one bodie. II. Our spirituall regeneration. Tit. 3.5. Not by the workes of righteousnes which we had done, but according to his merciemercy he saued vsus by the washing of the new birth, and the renewing of the holy Ghost.
Of washing there be three parts. The putting into the water: the continuance in the water: and the comming out of the water.
The putting into, or the sprinkling of water, doth ratifie I. the shedding of the blood of Christ for the remission of all our sinnes, and the imputation of his righteousnesse. Act. 22.16. Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy si…nes in calling on the name of the Lord. 1. Cor. 6. 11. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are iustified in the name of the Lord Iesus, and by the spirit of our God. II. The mortification of sinne by the power of Christs death. Rom. 6.3. Know ye not that all we which hauehave beene baptized into Iesus Christ hauehave beene baptized into his death? 6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the bodie of sinne might be destroied, that henceforth we should not serue sinne: for he that is dead is freed from sinne.
The continuance in the water, it noteth the buriall of sinne; namely, a continuall increase of mortification by the power both of Christ his death and buriall. Rom. 6.4. We are buried then with him by baptisme into his death.
The comming out of the water doth confirme our spiritual vi…ification to newnesse of life in all holinesse and iustice, the which we attaine vntounto by the power of Christs resurrection. Rom. 6. 4. Like as Christ was raised vp from the dead by the glorie of the Father: so we also should walke in newnesse of life. 5. For if we be graffed with him to the similitude of his death, euen so shall we be to the similitude of the resurrection.
The action of the partie to be baptized, is two-fold.
The first is, to offer himselfe to be baptized before the minister, and that in the presence of the congregation. This signifieth that he doth consecrate himselfe vntounto the Lord, and that he vtterly renounceth the flesh, the world, and the diuell. 1. Pet. 3.21. To the which also the figure which now saueth vsus, euen baptisme agreeth, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but in that a good conscience maketh request vntounto God) by the resurrection of Iesus Christ.
The second is, to receiue the externall washing by water: this signifieth, that the partie baptized doth receiue the internall washing, which is by the blood of Christ, or at the least that it is offered vntounto him.
Rebaptizing is at no hand to be admitted: for as in naturall generation man is once onelyonly borne; so must he be in the spiritual regeneration. Therfore they that are baptized of a minister, which is an heretike, not yet degraded from that calling, (if the externall forme of administration be obserued) must not be baptized againe of the Church of God: especially, if after baptisme they hauehave beene made partakers of the Lords Supper: onelyonly they ought to be instructed in the true faith. Euseb. Eccles. hist. lib. 7. c. 8. saith, There was in our Prouince an ancient professour of the faith, yea before I was created Bishop, nay before my predecessour Heraclas: who, when he was present at the baptisme of some, & heard what questions they were asked, & what answer they returned, forthwith came weeping vntounto me, and humbling himselfe before me, confessed that he was baptized by an heretike: yet in regard of that administration which he saw in our Church, he accoū ted that no baptisme, in that the confession there vsed, was fraught with blasphemies. This also he added, that he was for this offence so sore grieued, that he durst not so much as lift vp his eyes to heauen: wherefore he most earnestly besought me, that …e might be clensed and purified with the baptisme of our Church, and so receiue the gift of the holy Ghost. The which notwithstanding, I durst not presume to administer, but said, it was sufficient for him that he had beene so long a professour amongst vsus, & that at the receit of the Lords Supper, he answered, Amen. These things I told him were of force enough to purge him. And therefore I aduised him, to rest himselfe in his former faith and conscience alreadie sufficiently purified, especially in that he so long was partaker with vsus in the Sacraments. Aug. lib. 3. c. 2. contra Petil. literas. duplicate page duplicate page
The right vse of baptisme is this. When inwardly in thine heart thou sensibly feelest, that through the heat of concupiscence, thou art mooued to commit some sinne, then beginne to hauehave some holy meditation of that solemne vow, which thou diddest make to God in baptisme.
Againe, if through infirmitie, thou fallest once or often into some sinne, stil hauehave recourse vntounto baptisme, that there thou maist receiue courage to thy soule. For although baptisme be but once onelyonly administred, yet that once testifieth that all mans sinnes past, present, and to come, are washed away. 1. Pet. 3.20. Eph. 5. 25, 26, 27. Therefore baptisme may be truly tearmed the Sacrament of repentance, and, as it were, a board to swimme vponupon, when a man shall feare the shipwracke of his soule. Mark. 1.4. 1. Tim. 1.19. Rom. 6.4,6.
Last of all, see thou neuer rest, till such time as thou hauehave a feeling of that renuing power, signified in baptisme: namly, the power of Christs death mortifying sinne, and the vertue of his resurrection, in the renouation of the Spirit.