Discourses on Divers Texts of Scripture, Discourses 1 · Sermon 17
TITUS 3. 5.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 onelyonly 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 foreign, 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 foreign, 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 Isa. 44. 3.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 explicatiōs of this mystery: many are the allusiōs 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 …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 foreign, or sprinkling of the blood of 1 Pet. 1. 2.Christ, and of our being washed from our sins in (or by) his blood, do intimate some such matter, they are Apoc. 1. 5.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, foreign, 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 foreign, used in Baptism in the Apostles times, nor many ages after them; and that therefore it is no way probable, that foreign 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, Ezek. 16. 4, 5.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,
foreign,
foreign:What women do, when one in childebed lies, That do again, so maist thou sacrifice.
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 Hysterop…tmi, or Postlimini…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 selfsame 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, Isa. 7. 14, 15.that he may know to refuse evill and chuse good. Secondly, that of salt, as is implied in that of Ezekiel, Thou wast not washed with water, nor salted with salt: that of putting on the white garment, to resemble swadling: All these were anciently (especially the first) used in the Sacrament of our Spirituall birth, out of reference to that which was done to Infants at their naturall birth. Who then can doubt, but the principall rite of washing with water, the onelyonly one ordained by our blessed Saviour, was chosen for the same reason? to be the element of our initiation; and that those who brought in the other, did so conceive of this; and from thence derived those imitations.