Mixture of Scholastical Divinity with Practical Part 2, Excerpt and reply 18 – Excerpt and reply 19
Dr. Hammond.
Saint Augustines words are worth remembring, and cannot be denied to have … in thembIn …. …. …. Signum crucis … adhibeatur, sive frontibus credentium, sive ipsi aquae qua …, &c. nihil … …; … the sign of the Crosse be used either to the foreheads of the … (who are …) or to the water it self by which we are regenerate, it is not duly performed, i. e. with such ceremonies as by custome … … Church, the … of …, belong to it.
Jeanes.
Saint Augustins words at large are as followeth, Quod signum nisi …, five … …, … ipsi aquae qua …, sive … quo Chrismate unguntur, sive sacrificio … aluntur, … eorum … …. Saint … here you see approves of the Chrism, and os the crossing of the Oyle therein, and sets it check by … wi h the water in … and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper; now your … doe hope that you doe not concurre with him herein; and if you doe not, why doe you urge us with the authority of his Testimony?
2. If you apply Saint Augustines words to our times, and aver, that they cannot be denyed to have … in them, … your opinion is, that unlesse the … of the Crosse be used to the water in Baptism, and to the Elements in the Lords Supper, … … are not duly performed with such ceremonies, as by custome of the Church, the rule of decency, belong unto them; and then what Apology can you make for the Church of …, that never since the Resormation used any of these Crossings.
3. Suppose … in Augustines time had been administred without Crossing of either the forehead of the Baptised, or the water wherewith they were baptised, it had then indeed been performed not with such … as by the Custome of the then Church belonged … it: and so Fulk, in his … of the Rhemists, expoundeth Augustines …, page 693, but this … nothing against us; for we hold that such Baptisme hath been …, that is, duly, lawfully, and laudably administred, because it would have been agreeable unto Christs institution, which alone, and not the custome of the Church, is the rule of its administration,
4. These words of Augustine are at best, but propositio malè sonans; for they … a palpable appearance of evill, because they plainly seem to assert the necessity of the Sign of the Crosse unto Baptisme and the Lords Supper. Bellarmine bringeth them to prove, that nothing can be consecrated without the sign of the Crosse, de Sacra …. lib. 2. c. 13 as also to justifie their Crossings, … they use in the …, de Missa, lib. 3. c. 13. And there's a Popish Ballad mentioned by the Abridgement, and transcribed in Parker, wherein I beleeve this is one of the places in Augustine, related unto, part. 1 p. 92.
Without the Crosse Saint Augustinesaith,
(Read him and … may see)
1. No man is stedfast in the Faith,
Nor Christened well may ….
No Sacrifice, no holy Oyle,
No washing in the Font,
2. Nor any thing can thee …,
If thou the Cross do want.
Children by it have Christendome,
The water's blest also:
3. The Holy Ghost appears to some,
… gifts of Grace bestow,
When that this Cross is made …,
Of them … hallowed be:
4. Where it is not, there wanteth might,
For ought that I can see.
But the very Canons of the Convocation doc disclaime all necessity of the sign of the Crosse in Baptisme, The Church of England, since the abolishing of Popery, hath ever held and taught, and teacheth stil, that the sign of the Cross used in Baptisme is no part of the substance of that Sacrament; for when the Minister, dipping the Infant in water, or laying water upon the face of it (as the manner also is) hath pronounced these words (I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost) the Infant is fully baptized; so as the sign of the Crosse being afterwards used, doth neither adde any thing to the virtue, or … of Baptism; nor being omitted, doth detract any thing from the effect and substance of it.
Dr. Hammond.
And, Crucis signo in fronte hodie tanquam in poste signandus es, omnesque Christiani signantur (de Catechiz. rud. c. 20. tom. 4. pag. 915.) thou must be signed now in the forehead with the sign of the Crosse, as the Israelites on their door posts, and so must all Christians.
Jeanes.
Whereas you say above, that Augustines words cannot be denyed to have truth in them, you mean these last quoted, as well as the former; and if this bee so, then it will be an easie matter for you to clear up by argument this undeniable truth that is in them. God commanded the Israelites to strike the lintel and the two side posts of the door with the blood of the Passeover; therefore all Christians are obliged to be signed in the forehead with the sign of the Crosse, sounds with me as a very wild and loose inference; and therefore I shall intreat you to confirm it, or else relinquish this place of Augustine, as containing nothing of an argument in it.
Bellarmine alledgeth this place of Augustine to prove that the blood of the Lamb sprinkled upon the posts of the doors was a figure of the sign of the Cross: Tom. 2. … Eccles: triumph: lib. 2. c. 29. And unto him Chamier thus answereth; Tom. 2. pag 8: 8, 879. Nego crucem significatam in … Testamento; nisi per accidens: hoc est, quatenus Christus significatus est crucifigendus. Sed crucem directe ac per se significatam ullis figuris, nego. Nec ignoro tamen produci posse in contrarium testimonia quaedam ex Patribus. Sed ego quicquid Patribus in buccam venit, non censco amplect endum, ut verbum Dei. Potest, inquiebat Augustinus in Psalmum trigesimum sextum, nihil aliquid videri, alteri aliud: sed neque ego, quod dixero, praescribo alteri ad meliorem intellectum, nec ille mihi. Idem de reliquis dicendum. Itaque liceat in earum sententias inquirere. Certe illud de sanguine agni … super utroque poste, … est à Cruce. … solum tenuissimum vestigium; positio in poste, nonnihil alludit ad positionem in fronte; quae in corpore supremum locum …, sicut in ostio …. Sed sanguis, quanto aptiùs sanguinem Christi significaret? ut apud Gregorium homilia vigesima secunda in Evangelia. Quid sit sanguis …, … … audiendo, sed bibendo didicistis. Quisanguis super … postem ponitur, quando non solum ore corporis; sed etiam ore cordis hauritur. Gretserus excipit; posse … idemque plura significare. Ita sane, inquam; sed primo variis rationibus. Itaque eadem ratione qua significat sanguinem, non potest … crucem; At unius loci unica est ratio. Quare si hoc uno loco significat sanguinem Christi, non significat …. Deinde unum … potest varia …, at non quelibet: sed ea tantum, ad quae habet analogiam. … … … … sanguinis agni ad crucem? nam agno significari Christum nemo inficias eat. … ergo sanguis ex … …, significabit crucem non eductam ex Christo? sanguis, inquam, essusus, crucem compactam?