Survey of the Survey of that Sum of Church Discipline by Hooker, Book 1 · Chapter 21
CHAP. XXI.
Whether Mr. Hooker doth prove this Conclusion (which Mr. R. never said, nor wrote, nor thought) That Baptism gives formality, or makes a Member of a visible Church.
Mr. H. If there be a Church, and so Members before Baptism, Mr. H. Survey, par. 1. ch, 19. p. 55.then Baptism cannot give formality; for forma is causal, and before formatum. But the Church now considered as totum essentiale, is before Baptism. For Ministers are before Baptism, else Baptism may be administred lawfully before by such as are not Rulers nor Pastors, which is denied by Orthodox Divines, and none can give a call to Ministers, but onelyonly a Church of believers.Mr. H. without any ground ascribeth to Mr. R. that he maketh Baptisme the formal cause of visible membership.
Ans. Its a conclusion not ingenuously forged, as if I made Baptism the specifick form of Membership visible; he ought to have cited my words. By Baptism (I say) we are received solemnly into the visible Church; and Baptism is a seal of our entry into Christs visible Body, as swearing to the colours entreth a Souldier a member to the Army; and, we teach not that Baptism constituteth the Church visible simply as the Church, its a seal of a visible profession.
I distinguish the simple being of a visible Member actu primo; such are Infants born within the covenant visibly made to parents, the promise is made to Church-members, Gen. 17. 7. Acts 2. 39. from the solemn entry and admission into the visible Church.
2. I distinguish between simple being of a Member, and actual solemn communion or visible profession: So speaks the renowned Due Right of Presbyt. par. 2. q. 2. pag. 210. & 211. & 218. Synod at Westminst. of Great Brit. Conf. c. …8: p. 58. Ib. Catech. larger p. 137. Calvin advers. Anabaptist. art. 2. Homo in communionem Ecclesiae per baptismum cooptatur. Calv. Instit. lib. 4. c. 15. sect. 15. Est Confessionis nostrae symbolum—…otestamur nos in Ecclesiam Dei ingredi, 1 Cor. 12. 12. Bucan. loc. 47. q. 53. In unum corpus (…o) baptizati sumus, 1 Cor. 12. Tilen. Syntag. disp. 59. th. 4. In familiam patris coelestis cooptati per baptismum. Synops. purior. Theol. disp. 44. th. 34. In Ecclesiam visibilem & particularem insertio. Beza lib. quest. p. 150. Christianos tum à reliquis hominibus sejungit, tum inter se quasi unum sub eodem capite corpus consociat, ut Apost. 1 Cor. 12. 12. Pareus in catech. q. 69. ar. 2. pag. 387. Tertius finis, ut sit symbolum ingressus & receptionis in Ecclesiam, quia Deus omnes Ecclesiae suae cives vult hoc modo recipi. Pet. Mart. com. in Rom. 6. Inferi autem nos visibili Sacramento (Baptismi) in Christum & Ecclesiam declaratur hoc loco.Assembly, so Calvin, Bucan, Tilen, Professors of Leyden, Beza, Ursine, Tr…l…atius, Pet. Martyr, Iunius, Pareus, Waleus: its a seal for our solemn admission, and solemn ingraffing and adopting into the visible Church, 1 Cor. 12. 13. For by one spirit we are baptized into one body, &c.
1. The conclusion is fancied, and nothing against me, who teach, That Baptism is the door, way and means of our solemn installing into actual communion with the visible teaching Ministerial Church, (which Arminians and Socinians deny) Ergo, must Baptism be before the Ministers?
2. This fancied homogeneous Church visible of onelyonly believers, can be no politick Church, and that in ordinary to Christs second coming, which calleth Ministers, for Ministers did baptize this Church; then must the effect, to wit, called Ministers, be before, and that ordinarily the creating cause, to wit, the Church of believers who made them Ministers, a dream: If this homogeneous Church be a number of unbaptized believers, (and such Pagans they must be, for Mr. H. saith, They are a born Church, before their fathers Baptizers) then must unbaptized children (a strange Church) call and give Ministerial being, and that ordinarily, to their fathers, and choose out of their own unbaptized body their own Pastors not yet baptized: and who baptized these unbaptized? not the unbaptized Church, nor themselves. Mr. H. I judge would deny both.
3. As to that, Whether the Church or the Ministery be first, it is sure, Adam and Evah, as men, were before the Word: if The ministery must be before the church of believers.any say, They being created according to the Image of God, were created a Church; yet some priority there is of the subject, before the concreated Law: but sure they were not created a visibly professing Church, and therefore the Word, as preached in Paradise by the Lord the first Minister, Gen. 3. 15, 16. must be before Adam and Evah as a visibly professing Church. For, the seed is before the tree, the means before the end, the father before the childe, and so some Ministery, ordinary or extraordinary begetting, there must be, before the Church begotten. Who baptized Iohn Baptist? or if he was at all baptized, is not much. But that the Church in the ordinary way of Christ is before the baptizing and begetting Ministery, is wilde Divinity.
Mr. H. If Baptism cannot be before a Ministerial Church, nor Par. 1. p. 55, 56a Ministerial Church before a Congregational Church, which onelyonly can call them to be Ministers; then such a Church is much more before Baptism. For before the coming of some godly zealous Christian and Scholar into a countrey where there are a company of Pagans converted, they may joyn in Church-fellowship, and call this man lawfully according to God, to be their Minister, therefore there is a Church before a Minister, and so before Baptism.
Ans. 1. Mr. H. gives an extraordinary instance of his own devising, without Scripture; and of this he frames a fixed ordinary Rule, May not converted Pagans, which onelyonly (saith he) can call Ministers, call this Christian Scholar to be their Minister according to God? No, say we,
1. God never did it, nor is there any Scripture-proof for it.
2. Why doth Mr. H. frame a new instance of his own, and pass by the Lords way? For God sends not private men, or Christian unofficed Scholars (or if he do, their extraordinary Mr. H. his calling of a Christian scholar to be an unbaptized minister by unbaptized Pagans conve…ted; a supposition that proves nothing.sending makes them publick Pastors and Prophets, not the people) but he sent Philip an Evangelist, and after Peter and Iohn to Samaria, Act. 8. Paul to Macedonia, Act. 16. and his own Ministers, Tit. 1. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 14. & 5. 22. Paul and Barnabas, men in office, some more than zealous Christians and Scholars to the Gentiles, Act. 13. Ionah to Niniveh, Ananias to baptize Paul, Jon. 3. Act. 9.
3. Doth not Mr. H. dress up a providence of a Christian Scholar sent to converted Pagans, and must they be made the ordinary and onelyonly Church who can call Ministers? and this Scholar being unbaptized himself, must as the married Pastor in the ordinary way of Christ baptize to his dying day others, and his calling must be null (say our Brethren) except that onelyonly Answer to 32 questions, q. 20. p. 67.Church call him; and according to the ordinary Rule of Christ, he must be all his life unbaptized (which must be a reputing of Baptism, with the Famil…st, a thing indifferent) rather than he own a forreign jurisdiction (as Mr. Lockier speaketh) so as to be baptized by a Pastor of another Church.
Mr. H. If Baptism give the form to visible Membership, then Pag 56.while that remaineth valid, as it doth in excommunicated persons, and when the Church is dissolved, visible Membership must remain; for where the form is, the formatum, the thing having such a form must be also: for, Relata se mutuò ponunt & t…llunt.
Ans. The conclusion is fancied, and nothing against me. 2. There be two things in baptized Members.
1. God is their God, of Egypt and Assyria, fathers and sons under the New Testament, as the Prophecy is, Isa. 2. 1, 2. & 19. 25. & 60. 1, 2, 3. Rev. 11. 15. 2. Infants are holy as the root, 1 Cor. 7. 13, 14. Rom. 11. 16. and it must be cruel divinity to say, That fathers and feed broken off an Independent Church through persecution, and no sin in them, are by the Lord cast out of visible covenanting with God, and from Membership and Church right to the Seals: nor is Baptism any wayes removed.
2. There is the solemnity of admission by Baptism in the excommunicate; this is hurt: but its no more to me the formal cause of Membership, than the ceremony of Coronation, or the delivery of a Sword, is the specifick form of a King, and of a Major: and therefore all is granted, and Mr. H. proves nothing.
M. H. Baptism is but a separable accident to the covenant, its Surv…y part. 1. c 7. pag. 74.efficacy may be hindered by the unworthy receiver, and yet it remains in its own nature to the excommunicate and dissolved member, for the form can never be removed from the thing formed. If to be the eldest son be the formal cause of possession, it could never have been taken away. But to be a well-deserving heir, is that wh…ch gives formality of possession.
Ans. 1. It is a wonder that M. H. cannot find valid arguments to bear a free conclusion. For to me Baptism is not a means of a Church-membership simply, but of a Church-member tali modo, that is, of a member conspicuously and solemnly differenced from a Pagan.
2. It is bad Divinity to join the nocent excommunicate man with the innocent dissolved member.
3. It is a naughty argument to prove that Baptism is a separable accident of the covenant: why? because its efficacy may be hindered by unbelief: for the efficacy of any thing is the actus secundus, the operation of it, not its essence; so he may prove that Christ the essential subject of the Gospel is a separable accident How Baptism is hurt in the excommunicate.of the Gospel and covenant of Grace, because both the efficacy of the Gospel and of the Redeemer, by mens unworthiness and unbelief is hindered.
4. He concludes not so much as his own fansied conclusion; to wit, this only, ergo the efficacy of baptism is not the specified form of visible membership; valeat totum: what Dreamer said any such thing? it is sure baptism in fieri, as it is administrate and professed, is the means of the excommunicate mans solemn installing and engaging to be a follower of Christ: and by the scandal that brings on excommunication baptism as professed and as binding is so far hurt as the Covenant-Baptismal is violated: and if the man be excommunicate for Apostasy, then it is disputable whether Baptism be not quite undone.
5. It is weak moral Philosophy which Mr. H. addeth, that well deserving in an heir gives formality to possession. Well deserving gives just and Law-right to possession in the heir: But he is a weak Lawyer who would so plead; the innocent Traveller believing in God hath due deserving to his own purse, which yet is in the bloody Robbers pocket. Why Mr. H. saith he hath well deserving, which (saith he) is the formal cause of possession, and so he must have possession, for the formal cause cannot be separated from formatum. And so godly David unjustly expelled from his Kingdom for many years, yet deserving well, must have right both to possess his Kingdom, and not possess it, for if he have the formal cause of possession, he must have possession when he is expelled.Of the Church of Rome. 3. Arg. pag. 59 Iunius lib. de Eccles. c. 17. Calvin. Instit. l. 4. c. 2. sect. 1. Baptismum Deus primò illic conservavit faederis testimonium.—Sect. 12. Cum ergo Ecclesiae titulum non simpliciter volumus concedere Papistis, non ideo Eccles…a: apud eos esse inficiamur. Whitaker Controv. 2. q. 3. c. 2. Rivetus to. 3. tract. 2. q. 7. In corpore agro peste insecto adhuc aliqua obscura Ecclesiae vestigia observamus, Scriptural cet sulummodo occultata ibi rem insit, item que Baptismus, quamvis variis additionibus corruptus, ita ut si aliquid Ecclesiae ibi residuum sit, id fiat ideo quod aliquid de notis nostris ibi supersit.
Mr. H. It shall follow that the Church of Rome is a true Church, for all the members of that Church have true baptism, which is the formal cause of a true Church: but that is false, that that Church is a true Church.
Ans. The conclusion of the connex proposition is nothing against me, who deny Baptism to be the formal cause of Membership.
2. Such a Baptism that is valid, as touching the substance of the seal, as is in Rome, such a Church according to the Metaphysick entity and being of a Church, is Rome a Ministerial Church, teaching necessary fundamentals, though darkning and contradicting all; but it is not morally a true Church, but leprose and unclean. See what Iunius, Whitaker, Calvin and Rivetus say hereupon: Mr. H. is far from their sound expressions; if this be true, then to Iezabel and seducing Teachers, who are under the Church-covenant, the formal cause of membership must appertain, and they must be Church-members, and must be tolerate, till they be judicially tried, and censures applyed, so Mr. H. aSurvey. par. 1. c. 2. pag. 29, 30.and Church priviledges bestowed on them at the command of Christ. So also Mr. H. bPar. 3. c. 3. pag. 11, 12.So visible non-converts, and swine adorned with Pearls, contrary to Christs command, Matth. 7. 6. and yet keeping the essential form of visible Saints, must be visible Converts. Which is a contradiction.
Mr. H. The seal of our incorporation, which is latter and posterior to the incorporation cannot be the form of it; for the Sacrament is not appointed to make a thing that was not, but to confirm that was; or it doth not give, but confirm grace. But such is Baptism.
Ans. The conclusion is not against me.
2. Observe that Mr. H. sides with Arminians and Socinians, Mr. H. makes Sacraments meer and naked signs.who deny the seals to be exhibitive signs, and make them meer signs: but seals used in faith, both confirm the former grace, and add increase of grace. Baptism seals that union with the visible Church, which was actu primo in Infants, being born federally holy, Rom. 11. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 14. and is a way and means of one more solemn installing in the visible Church; as the receiving of the Keys of a Castle, both confirms the covenant of the Princes giving of the Castle to the receiver, and doth more solemnly authorize the man as Captain of the Castle. The like may be said of the press-money received by the souldier, who before had given up his name to the Captain, and that by covenant.
Mr. H. The Church was visible, when there was no seal, neither Arg. 5.Circumcision nor Baptism; therefore these do not constitute it, nor any member thereof, Gen. 17 10, 11.
Ans. 1. These five Arguments Mr. H. borrowed from the Answ. to 32. Quest. Q. 4. pag. 12, 13, 14. Baptisme is a seal of grace and priviledges which were before Baptism was.brethren, but weakened them by an unjust conclusion, which I own not, nor any of our brethren. This argument also is apt to destroy all the seals; for there was a Church of visible regenerate persons, and of such as by faith saw Christs day in Abrahams house, Gen. 12. and as yet neither was there Circumcision, nor Passeover, nor Baptism: will it hence follow, that Baptisme is essentially no seal of regeneration, nor of any covenant or covenant-Grace, because covenant, covenant-grace, visible membership, and all these were before either circumcision or baptism? but sacred signs are seals of graces and priviledges going before these signs, both in time and nature.
Circumcision so shall essentially be no seal of the covenant, nor of the righteousness of faith, contrary to Gen. 17. 7. Rom. 3. 11. For there was a people visibly in covenant, and Abraham was righteous before that circumcision was instituted. But nothing follows, but onelyonly baptism doth not seal our union with Christ, and solemn entry into his Church-visible, until the Lord institute water and sprinkling therewith, and stamp them by his Divine Authority, to seale these graces and priviledges.