cause, and attribute it to the principal, in the manner of speaking, when our purpose is to affirm this to be the principal, and of chief influence. So we say, it is not the good lute, but the skilful hand, that makes the music: it is not the body, but the soul, that is the man: and yet he is not the man without both. For baptism is but the material part in the sacrament, "it is the Spirit that giveth life;" whose work is faith and repentance, begun by himself without the sacrament, and consigned in the sacrament, and actuated and increased in the co-operation of our whole life. And therefore baptism is called in the Jerusalem creed, v Barrioμa μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, “ one baptism of repentance for the remission of sins:" and by Justin Martyr,' λourgòv rõs μετανοίας καὶ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὃ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀνομίας τῶν λαῶν τοῦ Oo yeyoVEV, "the baptism of repentance, and the knowledge Θεοῦ γέγονεν, of God, which was made for the sins of the people of God." He explains himself a little after, τὸ βάπτισμα τὸ μόνον καθαρίσαι τουτὸ μετανοήσαντας δυνάμενον, σε baptism that can only cleanse them that are penitent." "In sacramentis Trinitati occurrit fides credentium et professio, quæ apud acta conficitur angelorum, ubi miscentur coelestia et spiritualia semina; ut sancto germine nova possit renascentium indoles procreari, ut dum Trinitas cum fide concordat, qui natus fuerit seculo, renascatur spiritualiter Deo. Sic fit hominum Pater Deus, sancta fit mater ecclesia," said Optatus." "The faith and profession of the believers meets with the ever-blessed Trinity, and is recorded in the register of angels, where heavenly and spiritual seeds are mingled; that from so holy a spring may be produced a new nature of the regeneration, that while the Trinity (viz. that is invocated upon the baptized) meets with the faith of the catechumen, he that was born to the world, may be born spiritually to God. So God is made a Father to the man, and the holy Church a mother." Faith and repentance strip the old man naked, and make him fit for baptism; and then the Holy Spirit, moving upon the waters, cleanses the soul, and makes it to put on the new man, who grows up to perfection and a spiritual life, to a life of glory, by our verification of our undertaking in baptism on our part, and the graces of the Spirit on the other. For the waters pierce VOL. II. Dial. dum Tryph. m m Lib. ii. adv. Parm. Y no further than the skin, till the person puts off his affection to the sin that he hath contracted; and then he may say, "Aquæ intraverunt usque ad animam meam," "The waters are entered even unto my soul, to purify and cleanse it, by the washing of water, and the renewing by the Holy Spirit." The sum is this : " Βαπτιζόμενοι φωτιζόμεθα, φωτιζόμενοι ὑιοποιούμεθα, ὑιοποιούμενοι τελειούμεθα, τελειούμενοι ἀθανατιζόμεθα· “ Being baptized we are illuminated, being illuminated we are adopted to the inheritance of sons, being adopted we are promoted towards perfection, and being perfected we are made immortal." Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit, exeat indè 66 28. This is the whole doctrine of baptism, as it is in itself considered, without relation to rare circumstances or accidental cases; and it will also serve to the right understanding of the reasons, why the Church of God hath, in all ages, baptized all persons that were within her power, for whom the Church could stipulate that they were, or might be, relatives of Christ, sons of God, heirs of the promises, and partners of the covenant, and such as did not hinder the work of baptism upon their souls. And such were not only persons of age and choice, but the infants of Christian parents. For the understanding and verifying of which truth, I shall only need to apply the parts of the former discourse to their particular case, premising first these propositions. Of baptizing Infants. PART II. 1. BAPTISM is the key in Christ's hand, and therefore opens as he opens, and shuts by his rule and as Christ himself did not do all his blessings and effects unto every one, but gave to every one as they had need; so does baptism. Christ did not cure all men's eyes, but them only that were blind; n Clem. Alex. lib. i. Pædag. c. 6. "Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance;" that is, they that lived in the fear of God, according to the covenant in which they were debtors, were indeed improved and promoted higher by Christ, but not called to that repentance to which he called the vicious Gentiles, and the adulterous persons among the Jews, and the hypocritical Pharisees. There are some so innocent that they "need no repentance," saith the Scripture; meaning, that though they do need contrition for their single acts of sin, yet they are within the state of grace, and need not repentance as it is a conversion of the whole man. And so it is in baptism, which does all its effects upon them that need them all, and some upon them that need but some: and therefore, as it pardons sins to them that have committed them, and do repent and believe; so to the others, who have not committed them, it does all the work which is done to the others above or besides that pardon. a 2. Secondly: When the ordinary effect of a sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument, yet the sacrament is still as obligatory as before, not for so many reasons or necessities, but for the same commandment. Baptism is the first ordinary current in which the Spirit moves and descends upon us; and where God's Spirit is, they are the sons of God, for Christ's Spirit descends upon none but them that are his and yet Cornelius, who had received the Holy Spirit, and was heard by God, and visited by an angel, and accepted in his alms, and fastings, and prayers, was tied to the susception of baptism. To which may be added, that the receiving the effects of baptism beforehand was used as an argument the rather to administer baptism. The effect of which consideration is this, that baptism and its effect may be separated, and do not always go in conjunction; the effect may be before, and therefore much rather may it be after, its susception; the sacrament operating in the virtue of Christ, even" as the Spirit shall move: according to that saying of St. Austin," Sacrosancto lavacro inchoata innovatio novi hominis perficiendo perficitur in aliis citiùs, in aliis tardiùs; and St. Bernard, "Lavari quidem citò possumus, sed ad a Acts, x. 4. Ide Moribus Eccles. Cath. lib. i. c. 35. sanandum multâ curatione opus est." "The word of regeneration, that is begun in the ministry of baptism, is perfected in some sooner; in some, later.-We may soon be washed; but to be healed is a work of a long cure." 3. Thirdly The dispositions, which are required to the ordinary susception of baptism, are not necessary to the efficacy, or required to the nature, of the sacrament, but accidentally, and because of the superinduced necessities of some men; and therefore the conditions are not regularly to be required. But, in those accidents, it was necessary for a Gentile proselyte to repent of his sins, and to believe in Moses's law, before he could be circumcised: but Abraham was not tied to the same conditions, but only to faith in God; but Isaac was not tied to so much; and circumcision was not of Moses, but of the fathers: and yet, after the sanction of Moses's law, men were tied to conditions, which were then made necessary to them that entered into the covenant, but not necessary to the nature of the covenant itself. And so it is in the susception of baptism: if a sinner enters into the font, it is necessary he be stripped of those appendages, which himself sewed upon his nature, and then repentance is a necessary disposition: if his understanding hath been a stranger to religion, polluted with evil principles and a false religion, it is necessary he have an actual faith, that he be given in his understanding up to the obedience of Christ. And the reason of this is plain; because, in these persons, there is a disposition contrary to the state and effects of baptism; and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries, faith and repentance, that they may be reduced to the state of pure receptives. And this is the sense of those words of our blessed Saviour, "Unless ye become like one of these little ones, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;" that is, ye cannot be admitted into the gospel covenant, unless all your contrarieties and impediments be taken from you, and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from heaven. And this proposition relies upon a great example, and a certain reason. The example is our blessed Saviour, who was "nullius poenitentiæ debitor;" he had committed no sin, and needed no repentance; he needed not to be saved by faith, for of faith he was "the author and finisher," and the great object, and its perfection and reward: and yet e he was baptized by the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance. And therefore it is certain that repentance and faith are not necessary to the susception of baptism, but necessary to some persons that are baptized. For it is necessary we should much consider the difference. If the sacrament by any person may be justly received in whom such dispositions are not to be found, then the dispositions are not necessary or intrinsical to the susception of the sacrament; and yet some persons coming to this sacrament may have such necessities of their own as will make the sacrament ineffectual without such dispositions. These I call necessary to the person, but not to the sacrament; that is, necessary to all such, but not necessary to all absolutely. And faith is necessary sometimes where repentance is not; sometimes repentance and faith together, and sometimes otherwise. When Philip baptized the eunuch, he only required of him to believe, not to repent. But St. Peter, when he preached to the Jews, and converted them, only required repentance; which, although it in their case implied faith, yet there was explicit stipulation for it: they had "crucified the Lord of life;" and if they would come to God by baptism they must renounce their sin; that was all was then stood upon. It is as the case is, or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves. In children the case is evident as to the one part, which is equally required: I mean repentance; the not doing of which cannot prejudice them as to the susception of baptism, because they, having done no evil, are not bound to repent; and to repent is as necessary to the susception of baptism as faith is. But this shews that they are accidentally necessary; that is, not absolutely, not to all, not to infants and if they may be excused from one duty which is indispensably necessary to baptism, why they may not from the other, is a secret which will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it. 4. And therefore when our blessed Lord made a stipulation, and express commandment for faith, with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not, "he that believeth not, shall be damned," the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time; for then no d Acts, viii. 37. e Acts, ii, 38. f Acts, iii. 15. |