The Badges of Christianity, Book 2 · Chapter 6
Chap. 6. Of the forth outward part of baptisme.
THe last outvvard part of baptisme is aThe last outvvard part of bapt. is the body washed.the body that is washed. For we hauehave shewed before, that the sacramentes without their vse are no sacramentes. And albeit the word ioyned to the signe make a sacrament, yet this presupposeth a minister to administer it, & receiuer to take it: and then the rule is most certainely to be admitted. Now whether the whole body should be washed, or a part of the body: whether it should be washed once, or oftner: whether it should be dipped, or sprinkled: we are neither curiously to enquire, nor seriously to contend, nor rashly to determine: but rest in practise of the church, and in the custome os the countrey, as in a thing in it owne nature indifferent. The dipping and plunging into the water vsed by Iohn Baptist and the Apostles in Iudea and such hote regions, are not a necessary rule to bee drawne into imitation, especially in these cold quarters and countries.
But let vsus see who they are that hauehave right and interest in baptisme, and who are capable of this Sacrament. For not eueryevery one without respect, without difference, without distinction, is to be admitted to this priuiledge, because they are not fit receiuers thereof. If a minister should take the outward element, and vse the word of institution, baptizing in the name of the father, of the sonne, and of the Holy-ghost: yet it can bee no Sacrament, vnlesse the receiuer hauehave warrant and authority to receiue it. If he should baptize a stone, or an image, or a bruit beast without reason and vnderstanding, these are no fit receiuers, heere is an apparant and flat nullity: where by appeareth farther, the truth of the former rule, that besides the ioyning of the worde to the outward signe, their is necessarily required a fitted person to be partaker of the sacrament, as is more at large expressed, book. 3. Chap. 3.
To proceed, bWho are in the couenantwee must know that the receiuers are such as are within the couenant and such as professe the truth, whether in truth or not, wee leaue to GOD, that searcheth the heartes and raines: cRom, 14. 4let vsus not iudge another mans seruant, he standeth or falleth to his owne maister. Againe, such as are borne in the couenant are of two sortes. First, men and women of yeares: secondly, infants that are the seede of the faithfull. For the faithfull do beleeue for themselues and for others: as in bargaines they … and contract for themselues and their heires after them for euer. Although children cannot be saide to be saued by their fathers faith, no more then to liue by the fathers soule, inasmuch as the prophet dHeb. 2. 4 Rom. i, xvii Gal. 3 xi Heb. x, 38teacheth That the iust shall liue by his owne faith: yet the faith of the parents maketh their children to be counted in the couenant, who by reason of their age cannot yet actually beleeue, as they that want all knowledge and vnderstanding, eIonah, 4. xi.not discerning the right hand from the left. EueryEvery man liueth this temporall life by his owne soule: so eueryevery man liueth the eternall life by his own faith. True it is, baptis me is a common seale. But as all hauehave not interest to the pasture, herbage, and priuiledges of a Commons, but onelyonly such as are tenantes according to the custome of the mannor: so all hauehave not title to baptize a Sacrament of the church, but onelyonly such as are the Lords people according to the tenor of the couenant.
Touching the first sort of such as are to be baptized, they are men and women of riper yeares, who adioyne themselues to the church, testifie their repentance, hold the foundation of religion, fact. 8, 36and confesse their faith, as Act. 8, If thou beleeuest, thou … be baptized. The second sort, are infants within the couenant, g1 cor. 7. 14,which hauehave both theit parents, or one at the least faithfull, as 1 Cor. 7, 14. The vnbeleeuing husband is sanctified to the wife, and the vnbeleeuing wife is sanctified to the husband, else were your children …, but now they are holy. Where the Apostle she weth, that albe it a beleeuer be vnequally yoaked and matched with an vnbeleeuer: yet hee is not to be forsaken, nor the marriage bedde to be accounted polluted, inasmuch as their children are sanctified to God and the Church, as well as if they were borne of both parents faithfull. For so the children of the Isralites being of the posterity of Abraham, are included in the couenant of God. We are not curiously to enquire into the secret counsel & election of god: we must hWe must hope well of the seed osthe faithfull, and therefore we batize them.hold all the seede of the faithfull holy, vntill they cut off themselues, & in processe of time openly declare themselus to be strangers from the promises of saluation. Againe, the same Apostle iRom. xi 16 Gen 17. 7saith Rom. 11. If the first fruits be holy, so is the whole lump: if the roote be holy, so are the branches. So likewise God testifieth Gen. 17. I will establish my couenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations for an euerlasting couenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seede after thee. Such onelyonly were circumcised as were within the couenaunt.
Notwithstanding, they which were borne of vnbeleeuing parents and were strangers of the common-wealth of Israel, and aliants from the promises of saluation: if they acknowledged the errors in which they liued, and sought forgiuenes of their former sins, wer accounted the children of faithful Abraham, were admitted into the Church, and receiued circumcision, as the Apostles said to the Iailer, kact 16, 30, 31humb'ed vnderunder the mighty hand of GOD, and desiring to be instructed in the way of saluation, Beleeue in the Lord IESVS CHRIST, and thou shalt bee saued, and thy whole houshold. So the … testifieth the like of Zacheus, when hee had once receiued CHRIST into his house, nay which is more, into his heart: lLuk. 19. 9then Iesus said vntounto him, This day is saluation come vntounto this bouse, for-asmuch as he is also become the sonne of Abraham. Thus when the Sunne of rightcousnesse shineth vponupon the head and maister of the family, the beames thereof by a gratious influence beginne to comforr and concerue mact. 16, 14, 3 15 1 Cor. 1, 16 Ioh. 4, 53 2 Ioh verse, 1all the rest in the house: like the precious oyntment vponupon the head of Aaron, that ranne downe vponupon the beard, and descended vponupon the borders of his garmentes: or like the dew that falleth from heauen vponupon Hermon and the Mountaines of Sion, nPsal. 133, 2.which goeth downe into the vallies, and maketh all the plaine countrey fertill.
The knowledge of this point offereth diuerse profitable Vse. 1.vses to our consideration and consolation. First, it is the duty of all those that are within the couenant to giuegive their bodies to be washed, and to receiue that washing in the face and presence of the Congregation. Let such as are of yeares desire and craue this Sacrament: let them claime this priuiledge: oact. 8 36 & 22. 16let them demaund to be baptized, according to the example of the Eunuch Act. 8, so soone as he was instructed in the faith of Christ by the preaching of Phillip, as he came to a certaine water, he saide of his owne accord, See heere is water, what doth let me to be baptized? And to the same purpose Act. 22, Ananias stirreth vp Paule to this duty, saying, Why … thou? Arise and be baptised, and wash away thy sinnes.
Secondly, this condemneth the blinde, ignorant, and Vse. 2.superstitious practise of baptizing belles pchurch of Rome propha neth bapt, by baptizing bellcs.practised in the church of Rome, whereof now they begin to be ashamed, and seeking fig-leaues to couer their shame, they say they were not baptized, but onelyonly hallowed and consecrated to holy vses, as Bellarmine betaketh himselfe to this shift, as to a place of refuge, Lib. 4, de pon. Rom. cap. 12. Where the Cardinall confesseth, that the people call their solemne blessing and sprinkling with holy-water, the baptisme of belles. And indeede what can it else be called and accounted. They giuegive names vntounto them as to their children: they hauehave God-fathers appointed vntounto them as children hauehave when they are baptized and confirmed: qBellar. de sacra. bapt. lib. 1, cap. 27they hauehave new garments put vponupon them, as the persons baptized among them like wise hauehave: it is also permitted onelyonly to the By shops suffragan, who exacteth great summes of money for the baptizing of belles: they ascribe to them a spiritual power against stormes and tempests, against thunder and lightning, against windes and euill spirits: Lastly, they sprinkle them with holy-water, blesse them, crosse them, and so horribly corrupt this Sacrament of baptisme. Yea Durand a principall schooleman, not in the schooles of the prophets but of the papists (a fit teacher of such schollers) setteth out solemnly rDurand. lib. 1 Enchirid cap. 4the praises of belles, making them publike preachers and driuers away of deuils. But the deuils are not feared and fraied away by fight of crosses, by sprinkling of water, by sound of belles and babies: sMath. 17, 2 Eph. 6, 13, 14 xv, xviThis kinde goeth not out but by fasting and prayer, as our sauiour teacheth. And the Apostle willeth eueryevery Christian to take vntounto him the whole armour of God, that he may be able to resist in the euill day. Stand therefore hauing your loynes grided about with verity, and hauing on the brest plate of righteousnesse, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, the preparation of the Gospell of peace, and the grace of prayer in the spirit. Heere is the vniuersall armour of God: heere is the compleat furnishing of a Christian Souldier: heer is perfect direction giuen to vnderstand, and to withstand the assaultes of the deuill: but among these, wee hauehave neither the signe of the crosse, nor the hallowing of belles, nor the sound of such preachers, and therefore they are no part nor parcel of spitituall armour, to surnish vsus to goe into the fielde against the enemies of our saluation. For euill spirits which fightagainst the soule are not driuen away by hallowing of belles. If then, there were euer prophanation of Baptisme, this may iustly bee iudged to bee one of the most vile and miserable corruptions thereof, to bee detested of all true hearted Christians / that grone vnderunder the burden of them.
Thirdly, we may see the great louelove of God to all beleeuers, Vse. 3.seeing he vouchsafeth not onelyonly to bee their God, but the God of their seede after them, as God himselfe tGcn. 17, 1, 2, 7,promiseth to Abraham, Gen. 17. I will make my couenant betweene me and thee, and thy seede after thee in their generations, I will be their God: walke before mee, and be thou vpright. And ought we not to walke in the vprightnesse of our heart before this mercifull and all sufficient God, Who thus aboundesh in kindenesse toward vsus, and the fruite of our body? Let vsus returne vntounto him louelove for his louelove, who loued vsus first.
Lastly, this teacheth that infants are to be baptized, and Vse. 4.hauehave as great right and interest in this Sacrament, as they which be in yeares, able to make confession of their faith, Of which we will intreate in the chapter following, where we will proue this truth by testimonies of the scriptures, and maintaine it against the Anabaptistes and other heretiks that condemne the same.